Failing-but-possibly-repaired external hard drive: what to do?

I had a problem restoring a file from my external hard drive; disk repair said there were serious problems with the disk; DiskWarrior repaired it, but said there may be some missing files. (There's now a "backup" icon and a "rescued files" icon on the hard drive.)
What's the best next step? Assume the "repair" took? (Doubt this is prudent.) Clone the external hard drive onto another and resume Time Machine from that point? (Possible?) Simply start over with TM on the new drive and ditch the old?

Are these your only backups? If so, I'd advise putting that drive "on the shelf" until you can get a new one and get a full backup on it, preferably a "bootable clone."
The two most popular apps for that are [CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com>, which is donationware, and [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html]. It has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling.
Then, if you want to try to salvage your Time Machine backups, delete the "rescued files" folder. The only other thing on the drive should be your Backups.backupdb folder. Start your Mac up from the Install disc, then Restart normally. That should trigger a "deep traversal" on the next Time Machine backup, where Time Machine will compare everything on your system to the backups, and back up anything that's missing. You should see "Scanning nnnn items" on the Time Machine Preferences window. That will take somewhat longer than a normal backup, but should get you caught up with the current contents of your system (some copies of things you'd deleted or changed may be gone).
Or, as kingfumonkey says, do a zero-out erase and start fresh.
Either way, continue both normal Time Machine and regular "clone" backups. You might want to consider getting a portable external for the clone, so you can take it to your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, or other secure off-site location, so you're also protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc.

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