Unmount the usb disk first. You can do that in gparted. Al. Sent from my phone. Sorry for top-posting and typos. <blockquote type="cite">On May 19, 2010 11:38 AM, "Rowan Berkeley" <<a href="mailto:rowan.berkeley@googlemail.com">rowan.berkeley@googlemail.com</a>> wrote: On the Gparted display, all the volumes -- not just on the external hard drive, but on the laptop's own drives -- are marked with little keyrings. The menus for doing anything to any of them, such as resizing etc., are greyed out. What do I need to do gain access to them? Thanks, Rowan. -- <a href="mailto:ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk</a> <a href="https://wiki.ub.">https://wiki.ub.</a>..</blockquote>