Recommendation for HDD: Approx max cost £100 (~$150) and minimum size of 500GB


I have searched this site and been unable to find this info.

There is only going to be one HDD in my PC for a while so it will have 3 partitions: OS, Data and Image Files.

It absolutely must be as quiet as possible. I have read several posts referring to some drives stopping frequently and then being reluctant, or slow, to spin up and so not being suitable for the OS drive.

Can anyone help with some recommendations?

Take a look at the recommended hard drive list.
From personal experience I can tell you that a 7K RPM 3.5" drive is out of the question.
The Samsung F4 is at the top of the list for 3.5" drives. I have a 2TB model. It is very quiet in idle, but I can hear seeks. Vibration is listed as an 8 out of 10 for the 500GB model tested, I would rate mine a little lower at 6 or 7. If you don't want to hear the seek noise you need some dampening, either for the case or the drive.
In my notebook I use a WD Scorpio Blue 2.5" 500GB drive. I can hear seeks very slightly when the notebook starts and the fan is on the lowest setting. As soon as the fans spins up a bit it drowns out the drive.
For the absolute most silent operation you can put a 2.5" 5K drive in a Scythe Quietdrive enclosure.
Western Digital drives have a a power saving feature that parks the hard drive heads when the drive isn't accessed in some time. This is done a bit aggressively leading to a high number of head unloads and loads. I haven't heard of actual failures except when Linux accesses the drive repeatedly at an interval just a little bigger than the time for the head park. It is a potential point of failure, to be sure you could go with a Samsung drive.

Thanks for your reply.

I had had a look at the Recommended Hard Drive List but the entries date from 2009 and before - so I assumed that they were out of date.

With regard to the Samsung, I recently purchased a Samsung F4 EcoGreen 2TB 32MB 5400 3.5" drive at £100 and a Zalman HE350-U3E external case (for a different project). Upon switching it on before connecting it to the PC the noise/vibration was quite bad so I just sent it straight back. I had to pay the delivery cost but it was worth it just to get rid of it. I could well be wrong, but I couldn't see how installing it in a full size case would stop that level of noise. The full size case by the way is an Antec 'Solo Quiet Mini Tower'

You can suspend hard drives in the Solo and eliminate vibration altogether.
If you need the drive a lot quieter you need some form of dampening. The Scythe Quietdrive for 3.5" is EOL. The 2.5" version's availability isn't great either. I would buy one soon. I believe they might be EOL soon, too.

Thanks very much (a bit late) to Boost, otherwise not much help/advice on currently available hard drives. Or maybe I worded my post badly.

If you can hear a single platter 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Samsung M8 inside a Scythe QuietDrive you need to put down your stethoscope.