System won't boot w/USB Drive...

[Dave Onex]

Hi Folks;

I have an Asus A7N8xE-Deluxe mainboard and it refuses to start/re-start if I
have a USB Flash Drive plugged in or an External USB hard drive plugged in.
I have the latest BIOS installed, the latest on-board RAID bios installed
etc. I've had this system for years and have gotten all the bugs out of it
except this one. Up until now I've just worked around it by removing the
flash drive. Now that I have a 1TB External USB drive I'd like it to be able
to boot with it attached.

The specific symptom I'm seeing is that during a re-start the computer will
go through POST then go through the on-board SATA Bios and then when that's
done it accesses the floppy drive looking for a disk to boot. You then get
the error message, remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart.

I'd love to case this issue - thanks!

Dave

 

[JS]

Does your BIOS allow you to set a
USB device as a boot device.

First boot order/device is normally CD/DVD,
Hard Drive or possibly a floppy.

 

[Ian D]

Hi Folks;

I have an Asus A7N8xE-Deluxe mainboard and it refuses to start/re-start if
I have a USB Flash Drive plugged in or an External USB hard drive plugged
in.
I have the latest BIOS installed, the latest on-board RAID bios installed
etc. I've had this system for years and have gotten all the bugs out of it
except this one. Up until now I've just worked around it by removing the
flash drive. Now that I have a 1TB External USB drive I'd like it to be
able to boot with it attached.

The specific symptom I'm seeing is that during a re-start the computer
will go through POST then go through the on-board SATA Bios and then when
that's done it accesses the floppy drive looking for a disk to boot. You
then get the error message, remove disks or other media. Press any key to
restart.

I'd love to case this issue - thanks!

Dave

Make sure your BIOS isn't set to boot from a USB device. For
normal booting, the hard drive should be first on the boot
order. It looks like it's looking for a floppy first, then a USB
boot device. It finds your external HD, but it contains no
boot files, so it tells you to remove that device so it can
access your internal HD on the reboot.

 

[Dave Onex]

Hi JS;

It's set to boot HDD-001 (which is a RAID 0 Array and the boot drive).
There's another setting, boot RAID or SCSI and that's set to RAID
The setting for booting to USB or Floppy is the one above (which is HDD-001)

So, it's set properly in the BIOS. I can boot with any number of USB devices
with no issue but if it's a flash drive or external hard drive it fails :-(

Thanks!

 

[Dave Onex]

Make sure your BIOS isn't set to boot from a USB device. For
normal booting, the hard drive should be first on the boot
order. It looks like it's looking for a floppy first, then a USB
boot device. It finds your external HD, but it contains no
boot files, so it tells you to remove that device so it can
access your internal HD on the reboot.

Your description of the issue makes sense but the BIOS is set to boot HDD0
first, then CD-ROM, then Floppy.

The interesting part is, if I remove the external HD - it boots no problem
as usual. There is no BIOS setting set to boot USB.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[John John - MVP]

Your description of the issue makes sense but the BIOS is set to boot HDD0
first, then CD-ROM, then Floppy.

The interesting part is, if I remove the external HD - it boots no problem
as usual. There is no BIOS setting set to boot USB.

This is a known problem with some older motherboards, disabling USB
Legacy support may fix the problem. Does the computer boot if the drive
is powered off?

John

 

[Dave Onex]

Hi John;

Absolutely. The system will boot properly as long as there is no USB-based
flash drive or hard drive attached to the system. You can attach any other
type of USB based device and there won't be a problem. It's only if it's a
storage device.

I believe legacy support is turned on - I'll go into the BIOS, look for it,
and turn it off & report back. I'm certain you're on the right track in that
this should be a 'known issue' - this system has always done that contrary
to the standard BIOS settings.

I'll check it now and report back - thank you!

Dave

 

[Dave Onex]

Hahhahaha!

Thank you John - you cased it. The solution was to turn off USB Legacy
support in the BIOS. Once that was done the system boot with the external
USB drives attached - thank you very much - that solved an annoyance that
bugged me for years. Given that I just picked up a 1TB external drive it's
become really important that the system can re-start itself without dying
when it's attached (which is always).

Can I ask you one more question? (after all, you're on a roll!)

CHKDSK does not seem to work on the external drive. I get the usual message
stating the computer needs to be re-started to do it. I re-start and it
doesn't do it.

I can do a CHKDSK on the main system drive - that works. But for some reason
the external USB drive doesn't.

Any ideas?

PS>Thanks for casing that re-start issue - that made my morning

 

[John John - MVP]

Hahhahaha!

Thank you John - you cased it. The solution was to turn off USB Legacy
support in the BIOS. Once that was done the system boot with the external
USB drives attached - thank you very much - that solved an annoyance that
bugged me for years. Given that I just picked up a 1TB external drive it's
become really important that the system can re-start itself without dying
when it's attached (which is always).

Keep in mind that disabling USB Legacy support can cause certain
problems if you are using a USB keyboard or mouse, see here:

http://www.intel.com/support/peripherals/sb/cs-011939.htm
PC Accessories - Issues when USB Legacy Support is Disabled

Can I ask you one more question? (after all, you're on a roll!)

CHKDSK does not seem to work on the external drive. I get the usual message
stating the computer needs to be re-started to do it. I re-start and it
doesn't do it.

When asked while running the command force a dismount on the drive, or
use the X switch to dismount the volume:

chkdsk d: /f /x

PS>Thanks for casing that re-start issue - that made my morning

You're welcome.

John

 

[Dave Onex]

Interesting......

I do have a wireless keyboard and mouse. It's a Microsoft set and I've
always wondered why the receiver has both a USB and a PS/2 Keyboard jack.
Both have to be connected for it to work but I bet that by using the PS/2
jack for the keyboard it would still work without USB Legacy support enabled
when booting from a disk.

Perhaps there was a method the madness afterall

Thanks John, the /x for chksdsk did the trick too. It's a wierd feeling when
my computer is perfect and there's nothing left to do but use it

Best;
Dave