External HD prevents boot up

[kmarv]

My PC's OS is Win XP Media Center. I attached a Seagate 500GB Free Share
USB external hardrive and it is recognized and I can transfer data to it &
read data from it. However if is connected when I start up my PC Windows
will not boot up. I have to disconnect the external drive for Windows to
boot.

Is there a fix for this so the PC will boot with the external drive
attached?

 

[Ed Metcalfe]

My PC's OS is Win XP Media Center. I attached a Seagate 500GB Free Share
USB external hardrive and it is recognized and I can transfer data to it &
read data from it. However if is connected when I start up my PC Windows
will not boot up. I have to disconnect the external drive for Windows to
boot.

Is there a fix for this so the PC will boot with the external drive
attached?

It sounds like your BIOS is recognising there is an exteral drive attached
and trying to boot from it first - which will fail as you have no OS
installed on your external drive.

Check the boot order in your BIOS and make sure your internal hard drive is
a higher priority than your external drive.

Ed Metcalfe.

 

[Anna]

It sounds like your BIOS is recognising there is an exteral drive attached
and trying to boot from it first - which will fail as you have no OS
installed on your external drive.

Check the boot order in your BIOS and make sure your internal hard drive
is a higher priority than your external drive.

Ed Metcalfe.

kmarv:
The following will probably be of little help or comfort to you but for what
it's worth let me relate our experiences re this problem...

We've come across this situation similar to the one you describe a number of
times and we've never been able to determine why this is happening or more
importantly how to "fix" it. To make matters more confusing, sometimes the
problem is erratic using the same USB external HDD in that at times the
system *will* boot without a problem when the USB device is connected &
powered on while other times the system will *not* boot under those same
circumstances. Our experience has been identical to yours in that following
the boot and the subsequent connection/powering on of the USBEHD there's
(usually) no problem with the system recognizing the device and it being
completely functional.

And where this problem situation is present on a particular machine with a
particular USBEHD, we've generally found that connecting & powering on
another USBEHD poses no problem re undertaking a normal boot. And we've
frequently found that there is no problem with the "problem" USBEHD when
connected/powered on to a different machine at the time of a boot. It's been
a very puzzling situation to say the least.

I would doubt whether boot priority order would trigger this problem as Ed
suggests but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check it out in your BIOS. And
while doing so review any BIOS settings involving a USB device and change
(reverse) the Enable/Disable setting just to see what then happens.

Good luck and if you do find the "fix", please inform us.
Anna

 

[BillW50]

kmarv:
The following will probably be of little help or comfort to you but
for what it's worth let me relate our experiences re this problem...

We've come across this situation similar to the one you describe a
number of times and we've never been able to determine why this is
happening or more importantly how to "fix" it. To make matters more
confusing, sometimes the problem is erratic using the same USB
external HDD in that at times the system *will* boot without a
problem when the USB device is connected & powered on while other
times the system will *not* boot under those same circumstances. Our
experience has been identical to yours in that following the boot and
the subsequent connection/powering on of the USBEHD there's (usually)
no problem with the system recognizing the device and it being
completely functional.
And where this problem situation is present on a particular machine
with a particular USBEHD, we've generally found that connecting &
powering on another USBEHD poses no problem re undertaking a normal
boot. And we've frequently found that there is no problem with the
"problem" USBEHD when connected/powered on to a different machine at
the time of a boot. It's been a very puzzling situation to say the
least.
I would doubt whether boot priority order would trigger this problem
as Ed suggests but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check it out in your
BIOS. And while doing so review any BIOS settings involving a USB
device and change (reverse) the Enable/Disable setting just to see
what then happens.
Good luck and if you do find the "fix", please inform us.
Anna

Your problem Anna sounds like a defective and/or buggy HD to me. And I
would bet a known good one would work just fine on your system.

 

[Rock]

My PC's OS is Win XP Media Center. I attached a Seagate 500GB Free Share
USB external hardrive and it is recognized and I can transfer data to it &
read data from it. However if is connected when I start up my PC Windows
will not boot up. I have to disconnect the external drive for Windows to
boot.

Is there a fix for this so the PC will boot with the external drive
attached?

I have seen situations where a certain USB hard drive will cause a delay in
boot up on a particular system but a different brand does not. I have also
seen different effects with those same USB drives on a different system. I
have not come across a situation where it wouldn't boot, but it doesn't
surprise me and Anna's post confirms it.

This has something to do with the hardware in your computer, the BIOS and
the particular USB hard drive. It is _not_ an XP OS issue. I don't know of
any particular solution. In some cases a BIOS upgrade might change things,
but I wouldn't recommend it just for the issue you have, since you do have a
straight forward work around for this.

 

[BillW50]

While I don't have that problem during bootup if my firewire hard
drive's enclosure is turned on; I don't leave it on except by
mistake during shutdown or booting up.

The purpose of a removable external hard drive for holding data your
wrote to or moved to it is what...?

Like throwing BartPE on it (free) and booting up a stripped down Windows
XP on virtually any Intel/ADM based machine and use it to repair it. Or
if you are a Linux freak, boot up Linux from there. Also laptop users
often use external HD as larger HD than what 2.5 inch internal HD can
offer. These are just some of the uses.

 

[Dave]

While I don't have that problem during bootup if my firewire hard drive's
enclosure is turned on; I don't leave it on except by mistake during
shutdown or booting up.

The purpose of a removable external hard drive for holding data your wrote
to or moved to it is what...?

 

[Dave]

Like throwing BartPE on it (free) and booting up a stripped down Windows
XP on virtually any Intel/ADM based machine and use it to repair it. Or if
you are a Linux freak, boot up Linux from there. Also laptop users often
use external HD as larger HD than what 2.5 inch internal HD can offer.
These are just some of the uses.

Has nothing to do with personal data written to an external hard drive
within the XP environment. You appear to be "knee-jerking" responses.

 

[BillW50]

Has nothing to do with personal data written to an external hard drive
within the XP environment. You appear to be "knee-jerking" responses.

OS has nothing to do with personal data? You have to be kidding? Without
an OS, no personal data is retrievable. It actually has everything to do
with it.

On a side note, I use one of mine as a DVR to store 320 hours of
satellite programming on my laptop.