How to make sure a disk is bad?

I have a Western Digital 320 GB FireWire disk that has been acting up. The symptoms include
• IO errors reported when using ChronoSync to back up
• When I tried DiskWarrior, while rebuilding the directory it said something like "Performance will be slow because of hard disk errors"
Is there a definitive test that I can do to check if there's a problem? I am thinking of reformatting the disk using Write Zeros. If this works am I OK? It's still under warranty, so I could just send it back...

Hi, Stuart.
1. The definitive test is the SMART diagnostics. See Step 1 of the Procedure in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. If the SMART diagnostics do not indicate Verified, then the disk is defective.
2. If the drive has developed bad sectors, it should be replaced, though zeroing the drive can map currently identified bad sectors out of service. However, bad sectors, once found, often recur. See the "Bad Sectors" section of my previously-cited FAQ.
Note that the terms "bad blocks" and "bad sectors" are used synonymously, but it is the sectors that go bad. Blocks are comprised of sectors.
3. Directory corruption, i.e. problems identified by Disk Utility's Repair Disk function, do not necessarily indicate a bad drive as there can be a variety of causes for such unrelated to drive failure: see my "Data corruption and loss: causes and avoidance" FAQ. However, directory corruption can result in data loss and other problems.
4. The problems you cited with ChronoSync and DiskWarrior have a higher probability of being caused by directory corruption, vs. hard drive failure. However, one cannot entirely rule out a potentially failing or defective hard drive.
5. You're more likely to encounter problems with a given hard drive when it is either (a) very new or (b) very old. If a new drive is going to fail, it will likely fail is shortly after it's put into service. In the school of Failure Analysis, this is known as Infant Mortality. Most products conform to the Bathtub Curve during their lifetime: they either fail shortly after being put into service, fail randomly during their useful life, or fail increasingly after they enter the wear-out phase.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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