Have you tried Toshiba hard disks? I replaced my laptop hard disk several years ago with a Toshiba that was fast, quiet, inexpensive, and reliable.
More recently, after my network-storage USB Western Digital issued an error once or twice, I replaced it with a USB 3.0 Toshiba Canvio. It's also fast, quiet, and inexpensive -- plus it has 3x the warranty; WD only gives 1 year.
When I got my MacBook Air this Spring, I picked up a second one for some extra space. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to setting it up for backups before my SSD failed; but I've learned my lesson, my backups are now entirely automated.
Yeah I have the 256. That page says that if you flash the firmware update utility and run it you'll be "redirected back to this page" if there is an issue.
I've run that firmware updater without any warnings or anything... so looks like we're good?!
In other news, my 15-month-old Macbook Air is an absolute champ. I've dropped it multiple times, one time while sliding face first on some ice in the middle of Sweden... Macbook was in my hands without a case and got some gnarly scratches. This thing has taken all my abuse and continues to boot up every day! #crossesfingers
