I am a relatively new Ubuntu user and I am having some difficulty mounting my external 2TB HDD. When I first installed Linux my external HDD was working just fine, however, it has stopped working and I have a lot of important files on there that I need.

Before my HDD would automatically mount and no worries. Now, however, it doesn't automatically mount and when I try to manually mount it I keep running into filesystem type errors that I can't seem to get past.

Below are images that depict my step by step process of how I am trying to mount my HDD along with the errors I am receiving. If anybody has any idea what I am doing wrong or how to correct the issue I would greatly appreciate it.

Step 1) Ensure the computer recognizes my external HDD.

pj@PJ:~$ dmesg

...

[ 5790.367910] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD My Passport 0748 1022 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6

[ 5790.368278] scsi 7:0:0:1: Enclosure WD SES Device 1022 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6

[ 5790.370122] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

[ 5790.370310] ses 7:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device

[ 5790.370462] ses 7:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13

[ 5792.971601] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 3906963456 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)

[ 5792.972148] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off

[ 5792.972162] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08

[ 5792.972591] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found

[ 5792.972605] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

[ 5792.975235] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found

[ 5792.975249] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

[ 5792.987504] sdb: sdb1

[ 5792.988900] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found

[ 5792.988911] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through

[ 5792.988920] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

Step 2) Check if it mounted properly (it does not)

pj@PJ:~$ df -ah

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda1 682G 3.9G 644G 1% /

proc 0 0 0 - /proc

sysfs 0 0 0 - /sys

none 0 0 0 - /sys/fs/fuse/connections

none 0 0 0 - /sys/kernel/debug

none 0 0 0 - /sys/kernel/security

udev 2.9G 4.0K 2.9G 1% /dev

devpts 0 0 0 - /dev/pts

tmpfs 1.2G 928K 1.2G 1% /run

none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock

none 2.9G 156K 2.9G 1% /run/shm

gvfs-fuse-daemon 0 0 0 - /home/pj/.gvfs

Step 3) Try mounting manually using NTFS and VFAT (both as SDB and SDB1)

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/Passport/

NTFS signature is missing.

Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument

The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.

Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a

partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/Passport/

NTFS signature is missing.

Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Invalid argument

The device '/dev/sdb1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.

Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a

partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb /media/Passport/

NTFS signature is missing.

Failed to mount '/dev/sdb': Invalid argument

The device '/dev/sdb' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.

Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a

partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /media/Passport/

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb,

   missing codepage or helper program, or other error

   In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try

   dmesg | tail  or so

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /media/Passport/

NTFS signature is missing.

Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Invalid argument

The device '/dev/sdb1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.

Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a

partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

pj@PJ:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /media/Passport/

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,

   missing codepage or helper program, or other error

   In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try

   dmesg | tail  or so