Repaired External HD.. can I restore it and use it safely?

Hello,

Recently my 1TB Western Digital My Passport external hard drive wouldn't show up in Finder. I opened up disk utility and ran a repair on it. Here's the image I recieved:



I was able to get all my files off of the external hard drive safely and intact. However, my question is: If I restore it and clear everything off the external HD will I be able to safely use it without an issue? Or am I going to need to do something else before I can safely use it again.

If anyone knows anything to help please let me know!
Thanks!

Welcome to the forums.

It's impossible to say what caused the errors you saw (unless you know it's been dropped etc).

You can format the disk and use it. However, I wouldn't personally put anything of value or anything you don't have backed up elsewhere on it. Without knowing the cause of the error it's impossible to say it won't happen again

^^^ What he said - I toss most of mine when I get a problem - they're too cheap nowadays to take a chance.

Since you've recovered your data, try re-partitioning/format the drive and run Repair on it again.
If you use it, I'd watch it.

I agree with my colleagues. To be honest, I would probably toss that drive and just replace it with a new one. However, keep in mind that WD warrants their drives (I believe for 3 years) so you may be entitled to an RMA and replacement drive. Don't throw it away without contacting them first.

And WD is quite good at replacing drives during warranty. With a CC number, I've had my replacement drives arrive in 1-2 days from initial email to them.

Thanks so much everyone! I've only had it for a little bit over a year so I'll contact WD and see what they tell me.