External USB Hard Drive i/o error

[klostpret]

Hi!

I've an external hard drive where I store most of my data (the harddrive of my laptop is only 80GB, which isn't sufficient.)

Today I connected the hard drive, to create a directory on the biggest (ext3) partition.
I can read all the files, but when running mkdir in one directory it says:
Error creating directory: Input/output error.

I can create directories in all other directories.

How to solve this problem?

Using Fedora 10, but don't think that matters

Thanks,
Thomas

[Sunnyside]

What are the permissions of the directory that denies you? Check with command: ls -l stuborndirectory

[klostpret]

Hi, the permissions for the directory are drwxrwxr-x.

[Sunnyside]

My Mac regularely creates or leaves behind orphaned directories in my NTFS shared data partition. Most often this happens when I stop the process that created it part way instead of waiting till it's complete.
I can never enter this directory from any operating system after that, not from Linux, Windows or Mac. I can't even delete it.
By running disk tools from Windows (sometimes more than once) it eventually gets removed.
I get the feeling you have a similar issue.