3rd Master hard disk error

[[TC]»Elmo«]

SSDs that are big enough for Windows are actually getting quite reasonable now (£55 for 120GB) especially when you consider how much faster they are.

If you must use an HDD for windows, make sure it's a 7200rpm and a decent size (bigger = faster). Last I checked, 2TB was the best price per GB, but you'll want to shop around to make sure.
Don't buy a Hitachi.

If you get a large drive you'll probably want to split it up into partitions - the first one for windows + programs, the second for documents & data (and maybe programs that don't need to be installed, like LFS). That way it's much easier to just nuke the windows install if you need to and it will keep your data.