Booting with a Thumbdrive plugged in?

[Davej]

Anyone know why my XP machine would boot slowly when I have an old
256mb thumbdrive plugged into the USB port? I don't understand what
the issue is. The thumbdrive is nearly empty and has been formatted to
FAT.It works just fine when I plug it into the PC after it has
booted.

 

[Pen]

Anyone know why my XP machine would boot slowly when I have an old
256mb thumbdrive plugged into the USB port? I don't understand what
the issue is. The thumbdrive is nearly empty and has been formatted to
FAT.It works just fine when I plug it into the PC after it has
booted.

The machine may be trying to boot from the thumb drive.
Check in the BIOS for "Boot Order" and see if USB devices
are listed.

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

The machine may be trying to boot from the thumb drive.
Check in the BIOS for "Boot Order" and see if USB devices
are listed.

I agree with Pen on the booting issue. I keep a 1 meg drive around just for
testing that option. It has a form of Live Linux (Puppy) on it. If it
boots then I know it's time to check the motherboard options when I suspect
a problem that may be USB or boot order related.

Another thought might also be an anti-virus program set to scan the drive
during insertion or at boot before allowing windows to finish the boot.