ubuntu 12.10 not recognising external hardrive

Question

I have recently bought a 3.5 inch Toshiba HDD and used a SATA to USB dock. When I plug in the hardrive, it dosen't come up in the usual places but when I type lsusb it gives me

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 058f:b002 Alcor Micro Corp.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 1532:0037 Razer USA, Ltd 

I believe Alcor Micro Corp is the dock. I would like to access the hardrive to move files.

this is the output i get when i type sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 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: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

this happens when i type sudo blkid

/dev/sda1: UUID="2e46f563-4edd-4f29-b287-0b67ddcf3b09" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="b2b38503-f99a-4cfe-8cb3-10cce92608dd" TYPE="swap" 

Answer 1

The problem seems to be the absence of a valid partition table. Use Gparted to create a partition table on sdb and format it to ext4 (or ntfs when you want it to be compatible with windows). You can make multiple partitions if you like. Gparted can be installed by typing sudo apt-get install gparted.

Instructions for using Gparted:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted