Input/Output Error USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

I recently started having problems with an external hard drive setup that I did not have prior to trying to setup the drive to be compatible with Time Machine.
The hard drive enclosure that I have has 2 bays for two SATA drives. I have used this enclosure without any problems until I tried to get 1 drive to act as the backup drive for Time Machine and the other to be storage. I formatted them using Drive Genius. I used the option for GUILD or GUIL which it said was the better format for using with Time Machine.
The first problem I ran into since reformatting the drives is I got an "input/output" error the first couple times I connected the drive via USB to my Mac. I could still use the drives but I got weird errors every once in a while like "input/output error" or "device was not ejected properly" even though the device had not been unplugged.
Now the drives will not mount using OS 10.5.5. The drives show up when I open Disk Utility, but I cannot get them to mount. I have ran Disk Utility First Aid, and it says the drives are fine. There is one error that shows up when I run the "Repair Disk" feature. It reads "Invalid content in Journal". But Disk Utility also says "The volume was repaired successfully".
I have seen some posts when I do a search in google about this issue and it seems this is a known issue. Every suggestion I see says to insert your Tiger DVD and reformat the drive using that and the problem will be solved. The only problem with that is I have a lot of important files on the drive that I cannot lose. I had the files backed up until I moved them to the new drive a while back. Now I do not have a backup because I was in the process of switching to bigger drives and erased the old drives after doing so because everything was working fine.
I am hoping someone out there may have some suggestions (other than erasing the drive) to get my dives to mount so I can transfer the data off to another drive and reformat after.
Thanks,
Paul Rugg

I have similar problems with my USB external HD. Reformatting or repartitioning will not solve your problem. I've tried that 2 times already. The problem will reappear. My HD was running great until last month, when it suddenly without warning disappears from disk utility and the mac altogether. It not only dismounts itself, but also ejects itself, while still physically connected and the power is still on. The HD has its own power supply of course and is directly connected to one of the iMac USB ports. I have erased, repartitioned, disk verified, rebuild spotlight indexes, cleared PRAM and NVRAM, but nothing has solved the problem.
It is application independent, and not related to like iTunes as another post had suggested. Nothing to do with Mac applications. It seems to be USB related.
Messages in the Console seem to indicate something wrong with 'USB transactions passed their expiration point' and 'USB cannot enumerate something', but these statements are a bit cryptic to me. Perhaps an Apple system engineer can someday shed some light here.
thanks much for any assistance.

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Hello all.
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Hi jesusbet,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like the USB 3 ports on your MacBook Pro are not operating at the expected speed.
The first troubleshooting step I'd suggest in this case is to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your MacBook Pro using these instructions:
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On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.
From:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
If the symptom continues, you can also reset the PRAM:
OS X Yosemite: Reset your computer’s PRAM
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All the best,
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I get the following error when formatting a external hard drive.
Partition failed with the error:
POSIX reports: The operation couldn’t be completed. Cannot allocate memory
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Hi,
I just got the same drive and was wondering the same thing. I inquired with LaCie about it and here is the response that the support people gave me:
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Hi all!
I'm new here and I have some question about my brand new hybrid - HP Envy x2.
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USB keys and external hard drives disappear after 30 seconds to 1 minute of being mounted.

I just got my 15' MacBook Pro refurbished (by Apple), and everything is working well except my USB ports. My USB keys appear for 30 seconds to as much as 2 minutes before disappearing from eveywhere, my desktop, finder and disk utility. I have a 1 TB WD passport for mac that also has the same problem, but can stay on the desktop and copy files for around 10 minutes. Then error -36 shows up, the hard drive disappears from the desktop and finder, but only appears in disk utility. It is powered as well, The light is currently flashing indicating it's receiving power as I am typing this. But still, no way i can copy anyhting onto it.
I have searched and searched for the solution to this problem, I have tried using apple script to find "invisible hard drives." and that doesn't work either.
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Hi wdmpfm,
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+Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility+
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Cheers,
GB

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Hi all,
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Might be corrupted Finder preferences ...
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Thanks
Paul

Hi,
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volker

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Input/Output Error USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

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