Trouble with new external HD

[raevynn]

Hello,

I got myself a new external hard drive a few days ago. I first connected it with USB, went into the DISK Utility tool, there selected the "931.5 GB HD" and there selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Volume Format, gave it a name and clicked on Erase. That all seemed to work fine. I could write data on the disk and read it directely from the disk. Then I disconnected it via USB and connected it via an eSATA card for my MBP, and that also worked perfectly fine for the next two days, I could read and write data without a problem.

However, this morning it stopped working all of a sudden. When I start the HD, I get the error message "This disk could not be read". At first it seemed to work after clicking ignore and a long time of waiting, but it tooks ages for things on the disk to load and eventually it crashed when I tried to copy stuff on it.

So what can I do now? Did I do something wrong when formatting the disk? Was I supposed to use Partition instead of Erase or something? And why did it work yesterday but doesn't work today anymore?!

Thanks in advance!

 

[raevynn]

I formatted the HD again. At first it worked fine again, but then I verified the Disk with the Disk Utitlity and the message "Bit Map needs minor repair". I repaired the HD and everything was fine. Now I've started copying data to the disk, and all of a sudden I start getting error messages when copying. I verified the disk again, and it tells me once again that "Volume Bit Map needs minor repair". What is all that supposed to mean? Is there something physically wrong with the HD and should I get a replacement from the manufacturer?

 

[sickmacdoc]

With the clicking and long time loading and the repeated bit map repairs needed I would say without hesitation that the drive mechanism itself has definite problems. It does happen sometimes no doubt!

I would have NO faith in it and would immediately seek a replacement- as you can see you could not trust it to hold any of your files safely.