It really depends on wich IBM drive style you got. Some have glass platters that like to just shatter if left on continuessly and then getting very hot. I've got a IBM 40 gig, Maxtor 20, WD 80, and a WD 120 SE.
they have all worked fine so far. I did just have a WD 20 die very hard and completely crash the heads, it started clunking and eventualy got so trashed the other drive on the chain wasn't even recognised anymore. Luckily it wsn't a boot drive and was just a extra storage area with mostly outdated stuff on it. It was just over 3 years old so no more warranty but that's a pretty good run I think for something that is thrashed and used that much everyday.
Every manufacturer has had bad batches of drives due to a faulty part sneaking through or a new design just not working as planned.
Then of course there was JTS out of india, I actually had one that was still working quite well till the powr board developed a bad solder joint that can't be repaired. It ran for over 2 years I think and most never made 6 months
The newest IBM/Hitachi drives are sposed to be pretty bad now I've heard though.