I have XP on my laptop and WHENEVER I USE an external hard drive, I get Delay Write Error messages. I have several external drives and this has happened with all of them. Are you using USB 1.1 or 2.0?I am using USB 2.0Did you make any changes to your laptop before this started?

Have you always gotten the error messsages?

How big are the files you are trying to save?I didn't make any changes to the laptop. the Error messages are pretty new. It happens more and more now, even when I'm just trying to see what files are on the external HDD.Try doing a system restore to before the problem started.If I do a system restore will I lose the new files I've created and saved (documents and music) since the last restore point?I did a system restore but for some reason it would only let me go back a few days. This did not help the problem. I foresee me reinstalling XP in the near future.I'm back again and I still need help. THis external Hard drive istill isn't working on a new PC. At first it wouldn't read or write just large files for example my MP3 Folder is several gigs big. Now it won't even read, write or copy small files that are only a few MB in size. I even tried TAKING it out of the enclosure and adding inside my PC's case for a direct hookup and I get this error

"Error 0x8007o45d The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error"

and then all of Vista usually crashes and I have to reboot. Please don't tell me this is the second defective hard drive I bought in a month. The hard drive completely failed. It is now a metal brick. I guess all the problems I was having was because it was dying.

Thanks to everyone who replied.Is it a Seagate drive ? ?yes it is one of Seagate 1.5 TB drives I bought. The other one failed initaially.. But according to Seagate's website drives with my model numbers don't need the firmware upgrade.

I can still get my money back for one of the drives and get a 1TB for $30 less (which would be $100).

Do you think that's what I should do? If so what brand should I buy because my WD hard drive died a few weeks ago and that was less than a year old.

I still have the other seagate dive as my primary hard drive. What's a good software test to see if it's good? I don't trust seagate's website.There is no reason to not trust Seagates site...
The diagnostics are FREE and called SeaTools...
I would return the drive for a replacement instead of trying to DIAGNOSE it...that's what the Warranty is for.I've just been HEARING about all these defective drives from Seagate and I just bought 2 Seagates that went bad.

The drive I'm referring to is completely unresponsive now. So, my only choice to make is do I get a refund and buy a different drive or do I just exchange it for another of the same model?