Why Does Disk Utility Say "This Partition Can Not Be Modified"

I've got an external drive with three partitions. I want to expand the first partition. (It's a backup of my internal drive and it isn't big enough anymore.)
All partitions are Journaled. All verify okay. The disk's partition map is GUID.
Disk utility will change the size of the 2nd and 3rd partition, but when I click on the first partition, the one I want to expand, it says "This partition can not be modified."
I've tried making another partition smaller, but that doesn't help.
Does anyone know why? Or what I can do about it? (Can I delete that partition, make another one smaller and then create a new bigger one?)
Many thanks in advance.
Steve

Thanks, guys.
I ended up taking one of the existing partitions, making it smaller and then adding a partition of the size I needed -- created out of the space freed up. I also erased the original partition that I couldn't change and Disk Utility now says I can make it smaller, but not bigger.
Bottom line in my case -- all partitions except the first could be made smaller. But none could be made larger. (Maybe the first one couldn't be made smaller because it was full?). That caveat -- 'you can make 'em smaller but not larger' -- is not mentioned in the help file, but that's what I saw.
Make sense?
Thanks again,
Steve

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Why Does Disk Utility Say "This Partition Can Not Be Modified"

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