Windows won't boot when external hard drive is connected?

Question

I have a 1TB WD external hard drive but when i turn the PC on, the boot freezes on the black screen with basic computer info on, you know the one before windows xp bit starts.

Trying to access the boot menu doesn't work either, but if i start the pc without the external hard drive plugged in, and plug it in after xp starts, it starts fine.

How can i sort this out?

Answer 1

Is the External Hard Drive connected via usb? if so it could be a problem with your usb port or maybe your mother board. That same problem happened with my computer. At first I thought it was the device but then realized that no matter what was plugged into the usb port the computer would freeze and then start up after i unplugged it and replugged it back in.

Answer 2

I have had that problem. There are two things you can do, 1) Start by plugging the external hard drive into different ports and then switch on and see if the PC boots up. 2) Switch the external drive off before booting the PC then switch it on after a successful boot.

Answer 3

If it freezes on bios then just unplug it when you boot up the PC then replug it when windows starts if the hard drive is fine then the problem lies with the PC bios not the hard drive



If you have a dell PC this tends to happen when USB memory devices are plugged in on boot up as they have useless a bios the loading bar goes to 50% and nothing happens on the bios screen

Answer 4

go into the bios as the computer starts up , and make sure your computer is set to boot from your internal hard drive first, it is probably trying to boot from your external drive at the moment

Answer 5

hmm, there are possibly some corrupted files on your external drive windows checks for that sort of thing on start up



are you able to view the files in the drive when it is connected after start up, if not then maybe you need to consider reformatting the drive if there is nothing too important on it



this may help-



http://www.killdisk.com/



but use with caution!

Answer 6

I even have mine set up for plug and play so as that it could circulate on any workstation, mine never looks to offer any problem,maybe you're able to circulate to a working laptop or workstation shop and characteristic it completed it may be properly worth it interior the long-term, solid success.