External Hard Drive does not show up in devices though it is adequately powered

Question

when running sudo blkid and sudo fdisk -l no usb drive shows.

The output from dmesg however makes it appear that the external hard drive has no issues

[    3.409324] usb 1-1.3: new high-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
[    3.539853] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=1a40, idProduct=0101
[    3.553142] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[    3.565401] usb 1-1.3: Product: USB 2.0 Hub
[    3.573950] hub 1-1.3:1.0: USB hub found
[    3.582583] hub 1-1.3:1.0: 4 ports detected
[    3.829293] usb 1-1.5: new high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[    3.949334] usb 1-1.3.1: new high-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
[    4.070208] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device found, idVendor=1a40, idProduct=0101
[    4.084125] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[    4.097652] usb 1-1.3.1: Product: USB 2.0 Hub
[    4.110172] hub 1-1.3.1:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.124196] hub 1-1.3.1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[    4.289293] usb 1-1.5: new high-speed USB device number 7 using dwc_otg
[    4.375225] udevd[160]: starting version 175
[    4.410746] usb 1-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=07a8
[    4.435876] usb 1-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[    4.469171] usb 1-1.5: Product: My Passport 07A8
[    4.494288] usb 1-1.5: Manufacturer: Western Digital
[    4.515475] usb 1-1.5: SerialNumber: 5758353145343356434C3834
[    4.550417] usb-storage 1-1.5:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[    4.589716] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.5:1.0
[    5.590258] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Passport 07A8 1042 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[    5.642384] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Spinning up disk...
[    5.652691] scsi 0:0:0:1: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1042 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[    6.669130] ..
[    8.449797] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[    8.460258] scsi 0:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 13
[    8.579095] random: nonblocking pool is initialized

to be more specific, I have a powered usb hub plugged into the pi (and the wall) and a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive plugged into the pi (I can hear it running)

Answer 1

a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive plugged into the pi

This implies the drive is not plugged into the hub, which is the way you should do this. The pi and the drive are plugged into the hub, and the hub's data cable into the pi.

If the hub is properly regulated (though they often aren't), it will only provide 500 mA to each port, and while that might be enough for a pi, it won't be enough to properly power anything attached directly to it. The drive needs to get its power directly from the hub.

I've color coded the connections below in case this isn't clear. The ethernet cable is irrelevant. Red is for the hub's data cable (there is only one per hub), green is the USB cable from the hub to the drive, yellow is for powering the pi.

lsusb output on that pi looks like this:

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 174c:55aa ASMedia Technology Inc. ASMedia 2105 SATA bridge
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 050d:0237 Belkin Components F5U237 USB 2.0 7-Port Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Notice the external hub (Belkin) and the external drive, plugged into the hub (ASMedia), are both visible. Again, the power for both the pi and the drive comes from the hub. The data cable is indicated in red. Notice it uses a special port. There is only one of these on the hub.