Toshiba external hard drive no longer works...HELP!

[shannon_skis]

So here's the problem.

When I plug in my Toshiba external hard drive, I get the message, "Mac OS X can't repair the disk 'Toshiba Ext.' You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can't save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can." It tells me to back up the files then restore the disk.

Then I get another message from Time Machine that says, "Time Machine Error. The backup volume is read-only. To select a different volume, open System Preferences and choose Time Machine."

Then it says something about going to Disk Utility, so I did. I opened Disk Utility and chose "verify disk." It then gives me a message saying "The disk needs to be repaired. Click repair disk."

When I click on repair disk, it gave me this message: "Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."

What is this? Has anyone ever had this happen to me, and how in the world can I fix it?

 

[cwa107]

Sounds like the disk is failing. Being that it's a Toshiba drive, it's not at all surprising to me. Fixing it probably isn't in the cards - I would be looking at replacing it while you can still get at your data to move it to a stable drive.

 

[chscag]

Boy, do I ever agree with your statement about Toshiba drives. I went through two of them in a months time on an older Windows notebook. And guess what type of hard drive my old iPod mini had? You guessed it, it was a Toshiba. Their quality control has been very poor as of late.

 

[cwa107]

Boy, do I ever agree with your statement about Toshiba drives. I went through two of them in a months time on an older Windows notebook. And guess what type of hard drive my old iPod mini had? You guessed it, it was a Toshiba. Their quality control has been very poor as of late.

I would argue that they never did make a decent hard drive. In fact, their degree of "suckyness" is only surpassed by Samsung hard drives. Some companies really ought to stick to making TVs.

 

[shannon_skis]

If I do replace, what kind of external hard drive do you recommend to get instead?

 

[Jaygray]

I had a 2.5" 500gb Toshiba external fail last year. I called Toshiba and complained and they shipped me a new drive with a minimal hassle--just a couple weeks of down time to ship back the old drive and await the new one. Probably worth giving them a call and seeing what they say...