Perseverating error messages warning of a faulty USB disk

[Tipi]

   

Hello,

I have a Linkstation Live HS-DHGL 500 G Ethernet disk, and so far it has been workinq without problems. Three weeks ago I bought a Seagate FreeAgent 500 G USB hard disk in order to automatically backup the Linkstation.

 

I connected the USB disk to my Linkstation and formatted it to the recommended XFS format. After that I was able to mount it and save files on it – even the automatic backup task was working.

 

The only thing I am worried about is that Linkstation regularly sends emails like this:

 

"LINKSTATION- HDD error occurred.

[LinkStationInformation]

LinkStation Name: LINKSTATION

IP Address:192.168.0.91

RAID error occurance time: 2009/05/18 08:19:40

Disk(s) the error occurred: USB Disk 1 (sdb) READ sector:231

 

Disk-readingerror occurred.

Some data related to the error portion cannot be recovered.

Entire drives will not break down immediately, but it is recommended to take databackup regularly."

 

First I thought there must be something wrong with the USB disk. So I connected it to my Mac and reformatted it to Mac format. But it seemed to work fine and the Disk Utility of Mac OS says that the disk is fine – even though the disk check takes only a few seconds – is it reliable? Linkstation's Check Disk doesn't report any errors either.

 

Next I connected another FreeAgent USB disk to Linkstation, but it didn't stop the emailing - only the addresses of the faulty sectors changed.

 

The error messages are warning about three different sectors in the FreeAgent. I know there are always a few faulty sectors in a hard disk but I have understood that the system should take care of not using them.

 

I think there are three alternatives:

1.  I have two faulty FreeAgent hard disks.

2.  FreeAgent does not work withL inkstation

3.  Linktation can't handle possible faulty sectors in USB hard disk.

 

So, what could I do? What to try next?

 

Best wishes,

 

Tipi