Can't read a partition
 

I have a 70GB partition that is "Partition Type" Linux, as described in disk utility (Ubuntu 13.10). I cannot seem to mount it or read it. I want to access it before I delete the partition to see if there is anything on there that I want.

I can't access it.
How do I access it?

what have you tried? mount should work. Do you have any error messages?

I don't know what "disk utility" in Ubuntu is (palimpsest ?), but I would expect a GUI tool that Ubuntu ship to recognise a valid filesystem. Would imply to me that you don't have a (valid) filesystem on that partition. What does "sudo parted -l" return ?.

Images should be attached

According to the screenshots you posted there is no filesystem on that partition, this is why you can't mount it.

If I put a filesystem on that partition, will it erase whatever data there is?
How do I access the partition to see if there is any valuable data, such as pictures, journal articles, etc.. that I may be interested in recovering that may be on that partition?

If you format the partition with a filesystem this may overwrite parts of the data. If you want to recover data (if there is any) you can try the programs Testdisk (to see if there are remnants of a filesystem that can be mounted) or Photorec (to scan the partition for files even if no filesystem can be found).

I installed testdisk and photorec. How do I get the applications to target the partition I want to investigate and see if there are any files on it?

Just start them and follow the on-screen instructions.