External HDD problem?

[radioman]

You can probably download some diagnostic software from Seagate (SeaTools?)
That should be able to tell you how the drive is.

Andy

[Murphyv310]

Yes Andy is spot on here.
I have a Linux CD that diagnoses issues with HDD's. It has helped me in the past with duff drives. Sadly I have no idea where I downloaded it from.