what should i look for when i run the disk utility? it said i had a problem when i tried to verify it and after i repaired it it still said i have a problem (invalid number of packets)...i just bought this laptop 2 months ago so i would be surprised if the HD is already failing!
Excellent. Now that you've got a good backup on a DIFFERENT drive, the next priority you may want to pursue is to either repair the drive or have it replaced. If you just bought the laptop NEW 2 months ago and Apple's own Disk First Aid program won't repair the damage you might get some help from Apple if you want to work with their AppleCare by phone or visit an Apple Genius. You're certainly within the warrantee period if it's a new purchase.
All hard drives are subject to failure all the time. And all drives fail eventually. It's a matter of "when", not "if". The most likely times at which you'll have a problem with the drive are:
* When it's brand new.
* When it's getting old (5 years if your really lucky, less than 3 if you're not).
* If you move or bump it while it's running. You did say it was a laptop?
If you want to deal with the drive yourself -- a good skill to acquire -- and if Apple Disk First aid offers no joy, then you're next shopping stop should be an industrial strength drive repair program. The best tool by far, and the only product in it's class, is the Alsoft "Disk Warrior" product. It will analyze the disk in detail, build a new corrected volume directory, tell you all of the problems it found, tell you which specific files were affected and how, allow you to see and compare both the old and new versions of files that have changed, save a detailed report if you'd like, and then -- only after you've given it your permission -- render those changes back to the disk. I've only had 1 bad Mac drive in like 20 years that Disk Warrior couldn't fix. At that point you need a good disk content recovery program unless you have what you believe to be a good back up. Which odds are good you likely do.
Once Disk Warrior has been run an fixed your drive... I recommend you run it again to make sure it's completely happy on the second run. You should then find that if you run the Apple Disk First Aid facility in Disk Utility that it finds the drive just peachy as well. Having repaired the structure problems with the drive, it's probably worth running a long, over-night, sector-level surface analysis of the disk drive. Disk Utility can do that also. If it finds bad or dubious sectors on the drive it will remap around them.
If you find this happens again anytime soon, then you may want to seriously consider either replacing the hard drive, and/or reinstalling MacOS on the drive. Again, if the machine is new Apple should be quite sympathetic to getting both you and your computer to be happy again. Especially if you tell them you've done all of the above.
Hope that helps!