Corrupted files, hard drive test?

3

I'm currently on a macbook with a 1TB external hard drive connected trough a USB hub wich is connected on my macbook. The problem is, my disk, wich is partitioned in 2 (one HFS+ and one NTFS) keeps getting corrupted, recently it was my HFS+ partition, I could not repair it using the Apple's Disk utility, but was able to backup my files.

Is it synonym that my hard drive is failing? Is it because of my USB hub?

I also keep all my iTunes library on my external HD (HFS+ partition), and did a lot of transfer lately, adding files, removing etc. the last time, my partition got corrupted after a lot of deleted items.

If anybody has an idea of what to check first, what could cause the problem, I would appreciate it :)

Thanks!

allaire

Posted 2010-05-11T21:28:37.527

Reputation: 161

1If you suspect the USB hub may be the problem, try using it without the hub for a while. If the drive is powered through the USB cable (i.e. it doesn't have it's own power connector) then the USB hub may not be able to deliver enough power to it. – Wayne Johnston – 2010-05-12T02:42:52.747

the hub was self-powered, but I still bought a new better one, let see.... – allaire – 2010-05-12T11:34:29.137

I build my own external drives, never a problem with any of them, every pre-built unit I ever owned has had problems. Just warrantied my Seagate FreeAgent Pro earlier this year.

Buy a USB external enclosure, install a WD 5400rpm green drive, now you have a reliable unit. – Moab – 2010-06-29T16:01:40.937

Do you have another computer that you can connect this external drive up to? – jmreicha – 2012-05-25T16:06:30.477

Answers

1

A checklist of things to check:

  1. Swap out the hub, cables
  2. See if getting one of the USB cables that goes into two ports on your computer makes a difference (will give the drive more power)
  3. Check the S.M.A.R.T. statistics for the drive (you can use the instructions here to do that)
  4. If you have another drive, see if the same type of corruption occurs with that drive.
  5. Use that drive with a different computer, and see if that makes a difference.

soandos

Posted 2010-05-11T21:28:37.527

Reputation: 22 744