How to repair an external harddrive?

Question

I would like to reformat my hard disk, and if possible recover the (somewhat unimportant) contents if possible.

I have a Western Digital 1TB hard drive which had a NTFS partition. I unplugged the drive without safely removing it first. At first a pop up was asking me to use a Windows OS to run the chkdsk /f command, however, in the effort to keep using a Linux OS I used the ntfsfix command on the ubuntu terminal

Now, when I try to access the hard drive, it doesn't show up anymore in Nautilus.

I tried reformatting it using Disk Utility, but it gives me an error message, and Gparted would hang on the "Scanning devices" step infinitely.

Please comment any output that you would like to see and I will add it to my question.

EDIT

disk utility tells me is on /dev/sdb

the command sudo fdisk -l gives

dodohjk@DodosPC:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for dodohjk: 

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0006fa8c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        4094   482344959   241170433    5  Extended
/dev/sda2       482344960   488396799     3025920   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5            4096    31461127    15728516   83  Linux
/dev/sda6        31463424    52434943    10485760   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        52436992    62923320     5243164+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8        62924800   482344959   209710080   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000202043392 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121600 cylinders, total 1953519616 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6e697373

This doesn't look like a partition table
Probably you selected the wrong device.

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   ?  1936269394  3772285809   918008208   4f  QNX4.x 3rd part
/dev/sdb2   ?  1917848077  2462285169   272218546+  73  Unknown
/dev/sdb3   ?  1818575915  2362751050   272087568   2b  Unknown
/dev/sdb4   ?  2844524554  2844579527       27487   61  SpeedStor

Partition table entries are not in disk order

I wrote something wrong here, however here the output of fsck /dev/sbd is

dodohjk@DodosPC:~$ sudo fsck /dev/sdb
fsck from util-linux 2.20.1
e2fsck 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsck -b 8193 <device&gt;

Solution

You can try installing testdisk. Sometimes it fixes problems other software can't. Becareful though it is pretty hardcore. Google around to see how it works.

Comments

[Admin]

Please edit your answer and add the output of sudo fdisk -l in Ubuntu

[Admin]

the output of your $ lsusb is absolutely not usefull to help you. (Just a comment)

[Admin]

Can you get the drive's ID? If you can, add the output of fsck /dev/sdxx to your question. (replace xx with the right ID)

[Admin]

I can see from the Disk Utility that is it /dev/sdb, shouldn't it be a number?

[Admin]

how can i find the number? how can i find the right ID?

[dodohjk]

well is been several months that i cannot use it and is gathering dust. Will see what happens. Thanks

[Minos]

it sounds like the OP is dealing with a corrupt filesystem, not a physically broken disk.