Hard drives keep failing

[networked]

What do people recommend as either a specific product or something to look for when picking a hard drive under the following scenario:

GNU/Linux Server (LAMP).
Runs science/engineering calculations at University.
Standard SATA connectors on motherboard.
I/O can be slow, but there is a LOT of it.
Previous drives have not lasted long (although I am not sure what their models were). Longevity is often ~6mo to 1yr before data integrity is in question according to the HDD's SMART values.
Price is important, but if for that price it lasts several times longer increased price is fine.

Thanks!

 

[Emerald]

Which drives have you tried?

Will you use RAID?

How many drives do you need?

What size drive are you looking for?

What size drive are you looking for?

What is your budget?

 

[networked]

Which drives have you tried?

Will you use RAID?

How many drives do you need?

What size drive are you looking for?

What size drive are you looking for?

What is your budget?

Drives tried are unknown, I believe many of them were Western Digital. At least last drive said WD on it.

Can I use RAID without special hardware?

1 Drive?, although if RAID or similar could be done on regular hardware and that made the data more stable, I guess >1 would be fine

>500Gb, although >1TB would be better I guess. Is there a good reason to have less than that? If so, and it made the drives last much longer, maybe that would be better - although it would probably mean requiring many more drives. An OS is around 10GB? Maybe 20GB is the limit, although stability on I/O is more important. Should be able to handle regular stores of RAM in case of power failure.

Standard Desktop SATA

<$150, although like I said, if the price can be justified .. I don't have a frame of reference to evaluate yet