[Hampshire] USB hard disk not auto-mounting in Ubuntu

hi,

plugging an external Freedom Classic 160GB hard disk into a Ubuntu
Feisty system, I'm getting no visible sign of it .

'sudo mount' after the unit is plugged in shows

/dev/sda10 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.20-15-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /media/PQSERVICE type vfat
(rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)
/dev/sda9 on /media/disk type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda2 on /media/ACER type ntfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,umask=222,utf8)
/dev/sda3 on /media/ACERDATA type vfat
(rw,nosuid,nodev,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077)
/dev/sda6 on /media/disk-1 type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda7 on /media/disk-2 type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

(I think the sda1,2 and 3 are related to the factory installed windows
and manufacturer's utilities; 6,7 and 9 I believe relate to early
abortive installation attempts - neither relevant here)

Mount table looks identical before and after plugging/unplugging the disk.

On plugging in the disk, its front LED flashes a couple of times and
/var/log/messages says

May 24 11:24:06 ss07 kernel: [910944.162239] usb 2-5: configuration #1
chosen from 1 choice
May 24 11:24:06 ss07 kernel: [910944.162405] scsi8 : SCSI emulation
for USB Mass Storage devices
May 24 11:24:18 ss07 kernel: [910949.960467] usb 2-5: reset high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 26
May 24 11:24:18 ss07 kernel: [910950.232084] usb 2-5: reset high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 26
May 24 11:24:19 ss07 kernel: [910950.503699] usb 2-5: reset high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 26
May 24 11:24:19 ss07 kernel: [910950.763334] usb 2-5: reset high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 26
May 24 11:24:20 ss07 kernel: [910950.967076] usb 2-5: USB disconnect, address 26
May 24 11:24:20 ss07 kernel: [910950.967176] scsi 8:0:0:0: scsi:
Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
May 24 11:24:20 ss07 kernel: [910951.022972] usb 2-5: new high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 27
May 24 11:24:20 ss07 kernel: [910951.294592] usb 2-5: new high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 28
May 24 11:24:21 ss07 kernel: [910951.566208] usb 2-5: new high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 29
May 24 11:24:21 ss07 kernel: [910951.825844] usb 2-5: new high speed
USB device using ehci_hcd and address 30


I'd kind of hoped that I'd see '/dev/sdc' or similar appearing there...

'sudo fdisk -l' shows only /dev/sda partitions (eleven of them!
there's space there I'd like to reclaim but that's for another day)

I fear the disk is hosed. I can't remember exactly what was on it or
how it was formatted/partitioned. Any suggestions gratefully
received...