Usb hdd becomes headache

my friend purchased a new new USb HDD (SEGATE free agent go -500).

after 2 or 3 days of purchasing he find that

when he tried to copy some data from it to his PC, an i/o error message comes

and

he also unable to format that usb hdd by command prompt, whenever he tries the error comes like this " can not open volume for direct access"

and

tools to test the HDD those comes with it, telling it as a bad device

 

If he just purchased it I would advise him to return it and get another one, sometimes the drive is just bad