hotwheels 22 wrote:
. . .
i just had /two/ 2 TB internal Western Digital Black Caviar drives fail in the last four or five months with the second one just getting replaced about two weeks ago. i still have the old one here waiting to get mailed back
this 3 TB G-Tech drive went back due to some dumb issue with data on it corrupting my boot procedure and i just did my first backup on this drive on April 28th!
i am using firewire 800 on each end with the connection to the back of the computer.
What are these drives plugged-in to? If directly to a wall socket, try a good (ie, not cheap) surge protector, or, better, a U.P.S. system. If the drives are getting power spikes, dips, or blips, it certainly won't do them any good, and may cause damage.
And if you haven't tried new cables, do so. They can have invisible damage. Not likely, but possible.
what do i tell the manufacturer if Disk Utility says it is verified?
All that does is verify the directory structure; it tests nothing about the disk hardware or electronics at all.
should i run a Tech Tools to see if there are bad sectors
Run any diagnostics you can. They may or may not find what's wrong, but if you got 'em, use 'em.
or do i just tell them that it is acting up with Time Machine?
You might try copying folders with lots (ie, thousands) of sub-folders to it, such as the top-level System, Library, or Applications folders. Try it several times. What Time Machine does is a bit more involved than that, but if you eventually see similar problems, it will be a bit more clear.