"Does anybody have suggestion on the best place to buy one? I don't want to get one online because I did once and it crashed with all my data on it."
That doesn't make any sense. The majority (perhaps overwhelming majority) of hard drives bought by end-users are "bought online" these days, I'd think.
EVERY hard drive will die, someday. The only variable is when that's going to happen.
When folks ask "which hard drive should I buy?", my response is:
Don't buy ANY hard drive that's already assembled. Buy an enclosure and a "bare" hard drive, and assemble it yourself.
"But I don't know anything _about_ hard drives," you'll reply.
All you need is a screwdriver. The rest is pretty easy.
If you take just a few minutes to assemble the drive yourself, you'll gain a LOT of confidence about how the thing works. And if you ever have any problems, you won't be afraid to open it, because you put it together in the first place.
I'd recommend either a good external enclosure (Other World Computing has good ones), or you might even consider getting a "SATA docking station". These come in all varieties, although most are USB2 based. You can see what they're like here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
OWC also has one with both USB2 _and_ Firewire 800.
Once you have a SATA dock, just buy one (or more) "bare" hard drives. Newegg.com is a very good source.
Docking stations are great for backups, because you can now buy a second hard drive, and "rotate" your backups for extra protection. You can keep one of the drives "offsite" to insure against fire, theft, etc.
And if a drive fails, just put another one in, and keep right on going.
If the docking station develops a problem, just swap it for a good docking station and again, keep right on going.
but I want a more trusted brand like WD, or well, I don't know.
