Then, it seems the problem might have been the controller, germ. Things were mounting and looking correct before you used the enclosure, so it seems that's what changed...
And, yes: as I discuss in the User's Guide, a sparse image is less reliable than writing directly to disk. It's why I suggest writing directly to the drive if possible... the less indirection, the better.
That said, I've found sparse images to be quite reliable in my experience. I copy to them multiple times a day, every day, and haven't had a problem.
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--Dave Nanian
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