I am not very tech savvy. I purchased a new Mac Book pro and My Passport for Mac 500GB in JUly and have had no problems since my husband accidentally disconnected My Passport while it was in process of backing up my files. A few days later, ever since March 28 it has been giving me this message : "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the back up disk. The problem may be temporary. Try again later to back up. If problem persists use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk." I keep getting the same messsage every time it tries to back up my files - not sure what to do?

It could be that it's formatted with an HFS+ filesystem, which is not natively recognized in windows. Open up the disk management and check the filesystem on the device. If it is HFS+, you can get it to be recognized by getting all the data off, formatting it with another filesystem (FAT32 or NTFS are recommended), then putting the data back on.

YoUr KeYbOaRd Is AlSo DeFeCtIve!

Try Disk Warrior to test and repair your HD! It's an excellent sofware! If the problem persist you need to re-initialize your HD!

OY!
I am an IMac user, and although almost everything works reliably really well, there are a few issues. However, most of these can be resolved by accessing the Mac help resources. If you have registered with Apple, and are under warranty, you should be OK. I've found that they are able to help you resolve issues. If you are out of warranty, or an un-covered second user, it may be more difficult to resolve your problem. Worst case, you take your gear to an Apple center and get their techs to sort it out.
Did you use the Time Machine function to back up your stuff?
Alternatively, did you ask them to install your hard drive into the new system? (assuming it was a compatible swap) If you did the backuo manually, your system may not have restored your setup the way it was.
Although I hate being held hostage by Apple's superiority persona and related superior costs, their hardware and software has performed reliably. Their backup hardware is twice the cost of popular cheaper peripherals, but as I've said to other folks, with Apple, you know that you are getting hardware and software that has been tested and proven to work reliably with your host system. The reason I switched to Mac after 20+ PC years is that the PC hardware and software problematic issues have caused and cost me far more in terms of money, time and frustration than if I had gone with Mac in the beginning.
Please contact me if you need more help.

Yes and your kida as well as long as your husband signs of on a release form for your kids. Hope this helps.

For a MAC to use an external Hard drive, the hard drive has to be formatted FAT32 file system. That is the only file system MAC sees.

You need to determine whether the problem is at the disk interface or at the computer interface. Will the drive mount on ANOTHER machine using FireWire? Will your computer mount ANOTHER device using FireWire? This will tell you which machine is at fault. It's not unheard of for the FireWire channels in a Mac to just go bad, and (unless it is a Mac Pro) it typically requires a logic board replacement to address. For a G5, this would not be cost-effective. On the other hand, as I say, it could just be a bad interface in the drive itself. It's up to you to determine which it is.

Might have affected with lot of virus, Please update the latest antivirus patch updation in the Mac.

it must be initialised /mounted 1st for osx