Is my 1TB external IOMEGA drive failing?

Working backwards, "S.M.A.R.T Status: Not Supported" is due to the type of connection you used, not the drive itself. I suspect the Burn icon was used since a disk image is one way of backing up. Looking at the screen shot of Disk Utility and the warning message, have you tried selecting the media line (1TB ST310005 etc.) that's above Brandon's External and trying Repair Disk? If that doesn't work, I've found that Disk Warrior can fix some HD problems that are beyond Disk Utility.

On the other hand, it's possible that the external drive is on the way out.

Brandon Sky wrote:

...So I verified and repaired the drive using Drive Genius, a different drive repair program. Didn't work...

Did Drive Genius say the repair failed and if so, why?

Looking at the Drive Genius Help Center, it offers "Repair" which is supposed to fix errors that the "Verify" part of the process identifies and should be repeated until any reported errors are fixed.

But there's also "Rebuild," which sounds like it rebuilds the directory and is a separate utility from "Repair" which "can potentially fix errors that Repair tools cannot." Have you tried Rebuild? It's not Disk Warrior but the description sounds similar to what Disk Warrior does.

There's also a note that "Repair [and presumably Rebuild] does not verify any physical media defects. Please use the Scan function of Drive Genius 3 to check for media errors." That might be the next step, but if you can get the data that's on the drive copied somewhere else in the mean time, I'd suggest doing that first.

Brandon Sky wrote:

Now Drive Genius won't repair the disk anymore. It just immediately cancels after I start it. So what does "Volume header needs minor repair" mean, and is this a filesystem problem or a hardware problem?

If the volume header is situated on a bad block, it'd be hardware. At this point, even if it is fixable, could you continue to trust it? Perhaps it's time for a replacement. FWIW, Staples is selling this http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-Canvio-Desktop-3TB-Desktop-USB-30-External-Hard-D rive-Black/product_982533?externalize=certona for $120 next week. I've gotten a few of them and cloning to them from an SSD gives 145 MB/sec on large files via USB 3.0, which is as fast as I've ever seen an external like that go.

Brandon Sky wrote:

Sorry for the delay. Anyways, what is the volume header? And is the "Volume header needs minor repair" a sign of hard disk failure?

I wouldn't say it's a sign of drive failure if it can be repaired. I've gotten that message on occasion using DiskWarrior and once DiskWarrior set about fixing it, the problem didn't recur and the HD continued to work.

Brandon Sky wrote:

I have a few questions to ask:

Should I back up my data?

Should I erase my external drive?

Should I replace my external drive with a working one?

If my drive can't be repaired and has a volume header error, does that mean its a sign of hard drive failure?

You should ALWAYS back up your data; on multiple drives if you can.

If you can fix your external drive it might not be necessary to erase it. But if you have reliable backups (that means Bootable if you're backup up your entire boot disk), it couldn't hurt to repartition it and start fresh.

If you have any doubts about the current drive, replace it once you get your data off it. Your data is worth more to you than the expense of a replacement drive.

If your drive can't be repaired, than I wouldn't trust it for my data and I'd replace it. Would you trust it after all the struggles you've had with it? Part of what you're trying to achieve here is a comfort level you can live with.

Brandon Sky wrote:

So, is the external drive failing?

Not being there, I don't know. If you've run the DiskWarrior repair I've described and it succeeded, I'd say no. If the repair failed, I'd say definitely yes. But in any case, if you have doubts, replace it. Again, your data is more important than the drive.