Search Threads

quicksales Specific

Category Specific

Social Chatting

Posted by ellencol on 18-Jan-2012 22:13 Report
External Hard Drive
 I have an external hard drive which I leave on my computer all the time but if I turn my computer off or re-boot it with the hard drive plugged in it hangs just before the starting windows screen so I have to unplug the hard drive then it continues starting, the strange thing is if my computer restarts itself automatically because of an update this does not happen.

Just wonder if there is something I can to to stop this happening.

Thanks
Ellen
 
Replied by mkeep-on-rockin on 19-Jan-2012 08:40 (Ref 2329143) Report
Hi Ellen,
you could check your starting sequence in your bios and maybe put the usb at the bottom of the list...this may help.
cheers, Keith.
Replied by maryvalecomputers on 19-Jan-2012 08:40 (Ref 2329144) Report
Have you tried plugging into another USB port and seeing if you can boot successfully?

You may have to turn off USB Legacy mode in the machines BIOS. You can also check that the BIOS isn't allowing USB devices to be booted at startup or just move the USB devices to be lower in the boot order list.

If you don't know about the BIOS, I suggest you find someone who does to disable that feature.

Cheers
Bananas
Replied by richbartim on 19-Jan-2012 10:06 (Ref 2329156) Report
I did hear that you should not leave an external drive plugged into your pc only plug it in when you need to use it.
Replied by repair-pro on 19-Jan-2012 10:31 (Ref 2329160) Report
 Yes highly recommend that aswell. Sometimes depending which PC, the usb ports are still active when you turn off your pc. So your harddrive is still running! Not good.
Replied by ellencol on 19-Jan-2012 11:22 (Ref 2329166) Report
 The light on the hard drive goes out when my pc is turned off so I would not think it is still running.  My computer is on most of the time, I only turn it off if we go away or if there are thunderstorms around.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will check the bios next time I start up. It just seemed strange to me that the computer starts when its an auto restart, only hangs when I manually restart it.

Ellen
Replied by quickbuys on 19-Jan-2012 17:01 (Ref 2329217) Report
i turn my computer off at night also at the wall socket, but i have my camera cabel, printer and scanner connected all day also a 4 port usb adaptor. so should i disconnect all and only use when needed?
Replied by maryvalecomputers on 19-Jan-2012 17:07 (Ref 2329219) Report
i turn my computer off at night also at the wall socket, but i have my camera cabel, printer and scanner connected all day also a 4 port usb adaptor. so should i disconnect all and only use when needed?

I have external drives, SD card readers and other esoteric USB devices connected all the time. I don't have any problems, so I doubt you would too. I'd only investigate if your external USB devices are causing a problem.

Cheers
Bananas
Replied by quickbuys on 19-Jan-2012 17:12 (Ref 2329221) Report
ok, thanks bananas.
Replied by spade on 19-Jan-2012 17:20 (Ref 2329224) Report
 
Most of the external hard-drives I have ever seen do not have a simple on/off switch, they appear to be designed to be a simple slave arrangement that activates them when the computer is turned on and deactivates them when the computer is shut down. If there were some technical reason why it would be advisable to be able to turn them off independently then surely an on/off switch would be a standard feature  
Replied by magnolia134 on 19-Jan-2012 17:52 (Ref 2329225) Report
I agree Spade. I never turn off any of the devices attached via USB to my computer, including printer, external hard drive, scanner, broadband cable etc. although I turn off the computer each night. I can hear when my ext HD is active, and it definitely isn't most of the time - except when I access it and then it takes a second or two to respond and become available.

Not that any of this helps you Ellen.
Replied by richbartim on 19-Jan-2012 18:19 (Ref 2329233) Report
My ex drive is off ..unplugged until I need it.
My Son told me it wears out faster if connected all the time..?
I'm not an expert I just try to do as advised.
My way of looking at it..it might use more power?
trying to keep bills down.
printer is off at it's switch until needed.
microphone is unplugged not used that for a few years now.
Bananas is your expert.
Replied by maryvalecomputers on 20-Jan-2012 09:22 (Ref 2329299) Report
A lot of external hard drives have power save mode. I always disable this, as it's annoying waiting for the drive to spin up again. As for saving power by turning them off, yes, that's for sure. We have noticed significant savings on our power bill by turning off any device that goes into standby. We don't run our machines 24/7 here, as we don't see the point of a machine running when we're not using it. Like leaving lights on in rooms that no one is in.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with the OP's original problem :-)

Cheers
Bananas
Go Back to Computers & Internet forum
Back to top