PC Hell: USB Drive Stops Computer From Booting Properly

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One of my customers purchased a Seagate Free Agent external USB hard drive and has been using it to backup their valuable data. The only problem is when the USB drive is plugged into the computer when the computer is off, it stops the computer from booting. The system freezes on the POST screen as its checking the USB connections. If you disconnect the drive and reboot the computer, the system boots fine. You can then attach the the external hard drive after the system has finished the power on self test and the system will boot up with the drive available.

Of course the simple solution to this issue is to just plug the drive into the computer after the system has fully booted. However, many times you may forget the drive was plugged into the computer and you restart Windows. Then the computer hangs again on startup.

Is There a Way Around This Issue?

I would tend to jump to the conclusion that there must be a firmware upgrade for the drive that solves this particularly annoying issue. However, in this case, no such fix exists. So what's the next best thing to do?

Well, if you don't have any other USB devices that you want to boot the computer from, and under normal circumstances you would not. Then you can remove the ability to boot from USB in the BIOS Setup of the computer. If the computer does not know it can boot from USB, it won't and the computer will boot normally even if the drive is connected. Many times disabling USB Legacy support in the BIOS will solve this problem with booting.

Where Can I Find This Option in My BIOS

Since there are a variety of BIOS's on the market, its difficult to tell you exactly where you will find this option since it all depends on which BIOS and version you have on your computer. However, in many cases look for a Boot Order section that will list USB as an option. Simply don't allow the USB in the boot order, CDROM, floppy, hard drive, etc. Just dont allow the USB. In other cases, there might be a setting for Onboard Devices with USB listed.

Change the setting in the BIOS, reboot the computer and TEST EVERYTHING including the USB drive. If everything works, great. If not, reboot and go back into the BIOS and switch the option back again. In most cases, disallowing the computer to boot from USB will solve the problem. However, it may introduce another problem that you were not aware of at the time. In these cases, having the drive unplugged upon booting would be the only option to stop it from hanging the system on boot.

Hopefully, in your case, changing the BIOS setting will do the trick.

Good luck!