Buffer I/O error on device sdc1 (USB drive problem)

Hi,

I guess the USB drive has a hardware problem but I hope to get an authoritative answer from You guys.

The drive is a 2 years old WD :

Sep  9 23:09:21 root kernel:   920.856782] usb 2-1.3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
Sep  9 23:09:21 root kernel:   920.968303] usb-storage 2-1.3:1.0: Quirks match for vid 1058 pid 0704: 8000
Sep  9 23:09:21 root kernel:   920.968359] scsi7 : usb-storage 2-1.3:1.0
Sep  9 23:09:22 root kernel:   921.965938] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       3200BMV External 1.75 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
Sep  9 23:09:22 root kernel:   921.967516] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
Sep  9 23:09:22 root kernel:   921.968698] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 625142448 512-byte logical blocks: (320 GB/298 GiB)
Sep  9 23:09:22 root kernel:   921.970449] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Sep  9 23:09:22 root kernel:   922.014913]  sdc: sdc1
Sep  9 23:09:22 root kernel:   922.022569] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk

It has got one NTFS partition and I can see files and directories on the drive, I can copy files from the drive and to the drive with some success but I get errors like :

Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.320282] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled sense code
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.320294] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.320301] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.320309] Info fld=0x0
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.320313] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.320320] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 03 87 f7 ff 00 00 f0 00
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.320335] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 59242495
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.337191] quiet_error: 20 callbacks suppressed
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.337196] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405304
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.354141] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405305
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371068] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405306
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371073] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405307
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371077] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405308
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371082] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405309
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371086] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405310
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371090] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405311
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371094] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405312
Sep  9 23:19:00 root kernel:  1499.371099] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7405313
Sep  9 23:19:04 root kernel:  1502.703314] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled sense code
Sep  9 23:19:04 root kernel:  1502.703321] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Sep  9 23:19:04 root kernel:  1502.703329] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
Sep  9 23:19:04 root kernel:  1502.703337] Info fld=0x0
Sep  9 23:19:04 root kernel:  1502.703340] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
Sep  9 23:19:04 root kernel:  1502.703348] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 03 91 79 cf 00 00 f0 00
Sep  9 23:19:04 root kernel:  1502.703363] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 59865551
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.182188] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled sense code
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.182196] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.182203] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.182212] Info fld=0x0
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.182215] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.182223] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 03 91 fa d7 00 00 f0 00
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.182251] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 59898583
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.198406] quiet_error: 50 callbacks suppressed
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.198410] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487315
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.214666] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487316
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.230978] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487317
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.246315] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487318
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.260745] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487319
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.275139] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487320
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.275141] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487321
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.275143] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487322
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.275145] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487323
Sep  9 23:19:07 root kernel:  1506.275147] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487324
Sep  9 23:19:10 root kernel:  1509.467913] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled sense code
Sep  9 23:19:10 root kernel:  1509.467924] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Sep  9 23:19:10 root kernel:  1509.467932] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
Sep  9 23:19:10 root kernel:  1509.467940] Info fld=0x0
Sep  9 23:19:10 root kernel:  1509.467943] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
Sep  9 23:19:10 root kernel:  1509.467951] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 03 92 00 d7 00 00 f0 00
Sep  9 23:19:10 root kernel:  1509.467981] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 59900119
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.662195] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled sense code
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.662201] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.662206] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.662212] Info fld=0x0
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.662214] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.662221] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 03 92 06 d7 00 00 f0 00
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.662231] end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 59901655
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.677981] quiet_error: 50 callbacks suppressed
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.677988] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487699
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693845] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487700
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693849] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487701
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693854] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487702
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693859] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487703
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693862] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487704
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693866] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487705
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693869] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487706
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693873] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487707
Sep  9 23:19:14 root kernel:  1512.693878] Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 7487708

I have tried to attach the drive with different USB cables, which work well with other devices, with the same result ( I get these errors regardless of the USB cable used).

Can I be 100% sure that the hardware of this USB drive is broken ?
If not what is the best method to check a hard drive’s hardware ?

Best regards,
Greg