External HD issues

[Lank3033]

I'm running mint 9 and having issues mounting my 1T external. I have never had problems mounting it before, but my friend pulled some files off of it on his windows pc and did not safely remove it. Now when double clicking the drive, I get this error message:

Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 1: helper failed with:
mount: only root can mount /dev/sdb1 on /media/My_Passport

I run sudo fdisk -l and receive this message:


Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000bdf2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 37833 303888384 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 37833 38914 8680449 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 37833 38914 8680448 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000170586112 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121597 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0003f448

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 121598 976728064 7 HPFS/NTFS"



I then run sudo ntfsfix /dev/sdb1 and receive this error message:

Mounting volume... pread: Input/output error
Failed to calculate number of free clusters: Input/output error.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors...
Processing $MFT and $MFTMirr...
Reading $MFT... OK
Reading $MFTMirr... OK
Comparing $MFTMirr to $MFT... OK
Processing of $MFT and $MFTMirr completed successfully.
Setting required flags on partition... OK
Going to empty the journal ($LogFile)... Failed to empty $FILE_LogFile/$DATA: Input/output error.
FAILED
Failed to reset $LogFile: Input/output error.


Thanks in advance for any help.

[Lank3033]

Things have gone from bad to worse. Now Linux itself will no longer boot up. It gets stuck on a loading screen trying to run a check on the external drive media/MY_PASSPORT and this happens regardless of if the HD is attached or not. It tells me the device is not ready or not present and gives me the usual options to skip, wait or manually mount. It will not respond to these commands, but I can hit esc button twice to restart the mint load screen, but this does not solve anything and the screen remains stuck. At this point, I am ready to forsake any info on the hd just to get mint running again.
Please help, I'm completely at a loss!

[Lank3033]

Bump. Nobody has any suggestions?