I’m usually fairly tech savvy, but this one has me stumped, so I turn to my beloved Dopers.
I have a Western Digital external hard drive I use for backup. Worked fine for about 6 months, and still does. But a few weeks ago this weirdness started happening:
When the machine boots up it hangs on a blank screen just before Windows completes its startup. If I unplug the hard drive, Windows completes the boot process and all is good. I then plug in the external drive, and it functions normally.
If the external hard drive is not plugged in during the boot process, it hangs on the blank screen until I plug in the external drive, and then unplug it.
I checked the bootup priority in BIOS. My onboard hard drive is first, then CD-ROM, then the external. I can’t remove the external drive from the BIOS.
Checking around online I see something about enabling “legacy USB”, but haven’t been able to locate this setting on my computer.
Specs:
Windows XP Pro, service pack 3
Pretty good virus protection, last scan showed nothing
Computer is a custom-built gaming machine, now about 3 years old
I had the same or similar problem once I went from XP SP2 to SP3. I could find no solution, and this led me to upgrade to Vista which did not have this problem.
What kind of interface does the external drive plug into? Usb, SCSI, IDE or what? You might check on what your IDE devices are setup for in terms of slave/master on each IDE bus.
Thanks for the responses. I’ll answer the questions:
**Can you be more specific about where in the bootup process it hangs? **
Right before the welcome screen comes up, the Windows music plays, and the desktop appears. So it goes most of the way, but doesn’t finish.
I don’t suppose you tried to install any software directly off the external HD recently?
The only Western Digital software is a diagnostic tool, and it says the drive is functioning normally. Which it is, and that’s why I suspect the problem is with Windows.
Any difference if you use different USB ports? Or a different external drive?
No difference with ports, haven’t tried another external drive yet.
What kind of interface does the external drive plug into?
It’s a USB drive. It also draws power through the USB connection, so it’s not plugged into a wall socket.
What happens if you try to start the machine in Safe Mode? I there anything in the Event Log?
Will try Safe Mode when I get home and post the results. How do I get the Event Log?
It’s possible that it thinks there is an “open” file on the external drive that it is looking for.
Next time your system is up try clicking on the “safely remove hardware” icon (down in the right end of the taskbar) and telling it to remove the external drive. Unplug it then reboot and see if you still have the problem.
This is a setting in your BIOS. I had to tweak this once for running memtest off a boot CD, and I think once for keyboard support during a failed boot.
OK, I’m home and experimenting. Answering more of your questions:
If you have a virus-scanner, does it check for the USB drive on startup? Is Windows Search set to index it?
Virus scanner doesn’t appear to be looking for it. Where is the setting for indexing?
How long do you leave it ‘hung’? Are we talking 30 seconds or 30 minutes?
It will stay hung indefinitely. But if I unplug the external drive at any point, the boot process will immediately resume and finish.
Next time your system is up try clicking on the “safely remove hardware” icon (down in the right end of the taskbar) and telling it to remove the external drive. Unplug it then reboot and see if you still have the problem.
Tried that - no effect.
Something is expecting the drive to be there. Do you get the same problem if you log in as a different user?
Will try that next.
I’ve looked at the system event log and seen nothing that catches my eye. But I’m not really sure what I’m looking for - any thoughts?
Thanks again to everyone for responding. This is a really annoying problem.
Was the USB drive formatted as a bootable drive or not?
You also might want to run start>run>“msconfig.exe” and in the startup tab see if there is anything loading that’s looking for the external drive vs the root C drive.
The first place is the System Event log. You’re looking for anything with a red (error) icon. Because it seems to be an application issue, I don’t think you’ll see anything here, but if you do, it’s probably important. If the Indexing Service is having problems, you’ll likely see it here
The second place is the Application Event log. Similarly, you’re looking for entries with red icons.
Once you’ve checked the red icons, look at anything with a yellow icon.
Something else you may care to try: immediately on logging in, or on the switch to GUI mode if you log in automatically, press and hold the Shift key. This should stop all the Startup applications from starting.
I see an error in the system event log about TCP/IP. That shouldn’t have anything to do with this, should it?
Can’t really tell about the Windows Search function. I’ve changed the settings there to advanced, so it will take specific instructions on where to search.
Quartz, when you say holding shift down would stop the Startup applications, what will that do to my boot process?
I’m borrowing another external hard drive tomorrow and will conduct some experiments. It’s a different type, but hopefully will provide some insights into my situation.
It will stop anything from autorunning at startup. Specifically look in Start | Programs | Startup and the registry. You can also disable them all using MSCONFIG, but holding down the Shift key is rather quicker!
Update on my computer here, and another request for opinions.
After backing everything up on two external drives, I attempted a full re-install of Windows XP Pro.
During the process, the computer mysteriously powered down. Upon resuming the process, it did it again at the same point. This caused me to bite the bullet and bring it to a pro.
This guy can’t figure it out. It’s STILL subject to the weirdness of refusing to fully boot without plugging and unplugging a USB drive, and he can’t get the machine to reinstall. He now thinks maybe something is wrong with the motherboard and/or processor.
Any thoughts at all would be appreciated, since my computer is rapidly achieving doorstop status.