Bonehead

Build her a server, install it at her house, set up some sort of automated DVD ripping mechanism so that she can digitize her own collection, wait for the inevitable tech support call, then go spend a Sunday afternoon fixing her server and digitizing her collection for her while she makes you dinner. You get to call it “quality time”, and you get fed while keeping her happy and her collection as far away from yours as possible. Win/win, everyone is happy.

Isn’t that just leg warmers?

I learned a long time ago that the manufacturer doesn’t matter much on the long run. They all have a bad model occasionally. I have 500GB Seagate drives that still work, and some 1TB drives that died within a year. I’ve had good luck with recent WD Red 4TB drives, but my 2TB Green drives have all died on me. I had a some of the Hitachi Deskstar drives that worked perfectly for years when no one would touch them because of a bad production run. I currently have a Toshiba 8TB that I had never heard of before, but seems to be rock solid for the last year.

Pick a size that you want, look at what’s available, and research the reasonably priced ones to see if anyone is complaining about them. Review sites can be useful, but raw complaints in user forums will give you a better idea of which ones to avoid.