can not mount external hd

[reeko1ne]

hi everyone!
thanks in advance for any help. i have Fedora 12 (i'm a total linux newb btw), and i'm receiving this error message when i plug in my external hard drive:

Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 13: $MFTMirr does not match $MFT (record 0).
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

please help! this drive has all of my photos, homework, designs, music....my life, on it.

[Irithori]

What is the story of that harddisc?
- Did it work with (fedora|windows) until recently?
- If so, did you notice read/write errors before?
- Is it a ntfs or softraid or..?

tbh, "Input/output error" doesnt sound so good.
Can be anything from a loose USB cable (that is: if that drive is connected by usb)
to a damaged drive.

Depending on the importance of the data and the existence of backups,
you might even consider a professional rescue service.