Best way to test External Hard Drives?

[photosmike]

I need advice. I use the Disk Utility in OSX to verify my External HDs. The hard drives have always shown as verified. I have backed up to them using CCC several times.

Recently I tried to move files using Finder and CCC. The moves stopped with a message that data errors were encountered.

I am surprised that CCC did not warm me of any problem when I made the previous backups. If the problems are with the HD, shouldn't Disk Utility have warned me?

Is there a better way to determine the condition of my HDs than the Disk Utility?

Thanks for any help.

Mike

 

[matreya]

Disk Utility doesn't check the actual blocks on a hard drive, just the file system that points to all the files.

You need something like this to test a hard drive out thoroughly:

http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius_sysreq.php