When an external hard disk isn't recognized

Installing & Starting Storage Device Manager (PySDM)
Storage Device Manager is accessed via System > Administration > Storage Device Manager. From the command line, start it with "gksu pysdm". Root privilege is required since PySDM makes changes to system files. gksu is the cousin of sudo and should be used with graphical apps.

If Storage Device Manager is not in your menu, install it via synaptic ( System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager ). If you don't see 'pysdm' listed in synaptic or the following command line method is not successful, go to Synaptic > Settings > Repositories > Ubuntu Software and make sure the 'universe' repository is checked. Hit the 'Reload' button to refresh the package list and then select pysdm. You can also install it via command line with:

Code:

sudo aptitude install pysdm

Now open the Storage Device Manager and select the hard drive; if you see sdb it isn't enough; the options are still greyed out;click on the small dropdwonsign so it turns from sideways down ways and you see sdb1; select that one and now can you do your configuration...