External hard drive wants to boot

[Vivienne]

Hi

I am using a Maxtor One touch external HDD and running XP Pro. If the One Touch is turned on when I boot the computer, it won't start because there is no OS on it. I have to turn the HDD off whenever I boot. I looked in the bios and the external HDD is *not* part of the sequence. I spoke to the shop where I bought both my computer and external HDD from and they say that they think that some motherboards do not support this. (I'm not sure 'support what'?) My computer has the following:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor
Asus A7n8X-E Deluxe

They said that they were not going to spend the time to try to fix this problem as the workaround is just to turn off the HDD when booting. Sometimes, however, a program needs to reboot for settings to take place. Would there not be situations when I would need to have it on?

Any idea if there is a setting that I could change where I could leave the external HDD on?

Thanks!

Vivienne

[dbarrow]

Is there a Boot from USB device listed in BIOS?
Some will allow booting from a USB device.
The Maxtor is USB...
Check through your BIOS settings again. Make sure boot from USB device is not in your boot preferences.

[Vivienne]

Hi

Check through your BIOS settings again. Make sure boot from USB device is not in your boot preferences.

It says:

First boot - CDrom
Second boot - Floppy
Third Boot - HDD-0
Boot other device - Enabled
Boot up Floppy Seek - Enabled.

Should I disable the last two? I don't know what they mean. :-(

Thanks!

Vivienne

[kelly]

Can't hurt to disable those last two and see what happens.
- tony

[Vivienne]

HI Tony

Can't hurt to disable those last two and see what happens.
- tony

Didn't work. :-(

Vivienne

[mylanta]

HI Tony



Didn't work. :-(

Vivienne

That's because you aren't in the right place...look at every setting and you will see under usb options "enable boot to usb" and disable that.

[Vivienne]

Hi Rich

That's because you aren't in the right place...look at every setting and you will see under usb options "enable boot to usb" and disable that.

I will look again. Does Legacy USB have anything to do with it?

Thanks!

VIvienne

[casey]

Vivienne,

I have the same Motherboard as you except mine is not an E and I really don't know the difference. Anyway I did find where it lets you boot to the USB HDD but for it to work it should show up in your first or second or third boot sources. If you go to Advanced Bios Features then scroll down to first boot device and press enter where you will see the list available to you. The usb hdd is all the way at the bottom and if you don't scroll down you won't see it. But if it is selected it should show up on your list as either first second or third boot devices. So if it's not showing up, then I can't imagine why it would boot. If it was me I would put my HDD first and see if that settles it. I have it floppy then my HDD ...But it should be there...

My settings first boot floppy, second boot HDD-0 third boot cd-rom

[Vivienne]

Hi casey

Thanks very much for walking me through this.

If it was me I would put my HDD first and see if that settles it.

Unfortunately this does not work and I get Boot Disk Failure. I even went so far as, knowing it was not going to matter, putting my HDD first and disabling everything else so that it could not possibly make a mistake and I get BOOT DISK FAILURE again. :-(

I tried to conact Asus through email but they wanted to know serial numbers on video cards etc. - it was not enough to give them detailed MB description. I posted on their forum but no one answered.

So I phoned. They have no 1-800 number and so it was a long distance call. Iwaited 15 minutes till I got through. The tech said he didn't know but a higher level technician would phone me. Two days later and no call. :-(

Perhaps it is just some quirk that makes it impossible. Computers sure are not *there* yet!!! :-(

Thanks very much for the suggestions.

Vivienne

[Dan18960]

I can't be of much help on an AMD board - BUT that said, I had a client's son attach an Apple IPOD to their computer and even though it didn't show in the booting priority list - it stopped the computer from booting. Got the Operating system not found error.

I had to hunt in ALL of the settings until I found the IPOD was actully listed and I disabled the setting, resumed the boot process, and powered off the system. When I powered it back on and entered the BIOS the IPOD had been completely erased (no disable was listed - the hardware was just gone).

What I would do is power off the computer, disconnect the external, enter BIOS immediately, search EVERYWHERE for the hardware listing, and disable it. Make sure you know what you are looking for before you disconnect though.

Aw, the joys of waiting by the phone for tech support to call.:dance:

[Vivienne]

Hi Dan
I
What I would do is power off the computer, disconnect the external, enter BIOS immediately, search EVERYWHERE for the hardware listing, and disable it. Make sure you know what you are looking for before you disconnect though.:

When Rich told me to disable it, I looked everywhere for something to disable. I found nothing. I took out the MB manual to find a setting there. I found nothing to help me find it. I have no idea what I am now looking for. I thought that I was looking for something like disable USB External boot device or something. So I concentrated in the boot sequence part because that's what made sense to me. Like Casey was saying - if it's not in any boot sequence this shouldn't happen but it did!

Dan, what exactly is it that I am looking for? What setting did you find that disabled the Ipod from booting and in what section did you find it?


Aw, the joys of waiting by the phone for tech support to call.:dance:

It's so frustrating!!! I am finding more and more people do not return phone calls - not just in this industry. It's sad as well as frustrating.

Thanks very much, Dan!

Vivienne

[kern]

Unfortunately this does not work and I get Boot Disk Failure. I even went so far as, knowing it was not going to matter, putting my HDD first and disabling everything else so that it could not possibly make a mistake and I get BOOT DISK FAILURE again.

you may need to change the jumper on the back of the harddrive(s) to "CS" (Cable Select)

[mylanta]

Viv there simply has to be a setting somewhere that enables usb boot drive though it makes no sense that if hdd is # 1 this would stilla ffect anything.
Have you looked for bios updates on that board as this may be an issue that was corrected with a bios flash.

[casey]

Rish,

There is a boot to USB HDD setting in the boot order. It's down near the bottom and you normally wouldn't see it unless you scroll down but if it was selected it would be one of three boot selections, which vivienne says it's not. The board also has a Boot other which I would imagine she has disabled. I didn't check that but I believe it's just disable or enable setting. I couldn't believe that putting the HDD first didn't settle the problem. I have read where others have had the same problem but haven't seen a fix.

[mylanta]

Well if there is no bios flash to help here, the only other thought really is should an external drive be on all the time anyway, and while I feel it look like the cowards way out in this case, the best way to preserve the drive and also maintain it's usefullness is really considered by most to leave it off except when needed. Most of those cases are not ventillated right and they will last longer off.

Dan and I were talking a few weeks ago, and we have both had boards where they will always try to boot an ide first, even when satas are onboard, and no matter what setting you choose in the bios, this may be related to it where there is a setting you don't see for usb boot device enabled, and no matter how the bios is set it still tries to do this on that board. There has to be an explanation, but that does not mean we will find irt.

[Vivienne]

Hi all

you may need to change the jumper on the back of the harddrive(s) to "CS" (Cable Select)

Kern: I do not know how to do this. Perhaps next time I go to the shop, I can ask them to do it for me.


Have you looked for bios updates on that board as this may be an issue that was corrected with a bios flash.

Rich: There is a new bios update but all it does is give support to more CPus.


I have read where others have had the same problem but haven't seen a fix.


Casey: Thank you for telling me I'm not alone! I was beginning to think I was just being dense here! Only kidding! The shop where I bought it could not do anything about it and just said that it was a motherboard thing. But there have been other things that they said couldn't be fixed and I later found out that actually there were easy fixes. That is why I came here looking for help.
Thanks for trying to help me fix this. I guess I am going to give up as it is still usable.

and while I feel it look like the cowards way out in this case, the best way to preserve the drive and also maintain it's usefullness is really considered by most to leave it off except when needed. Most of those cases are not ventillated right and they will last longer off.

:-) I had a feeling that this was eventually coming. LOL! I know how you feel about this and being a Rich believer, I have been turning it off whenever I didn't use it - which is most of the time. I was just worried that there would be an occasion where a computer had to reboot and had to do something involving that drive. So far I haven't needed it to be on so I'll just give up the fight.


this may be related to it where there is a setting you don't see for usb boot device enabled, and no matter how the bios is set it still tries to do this on that board. There has to be an explanation, but that does not mean we will find irt.

:-) Thanks very much to all of you for trying to help. Although we didn't find a solution (unless Kern's solution will work) I still want you to know my appreciation is there!!!

Vivienne

[Vivienne]

It's solved! It's solved!! Yay!!!!

An IT told me to disable legacy support. I did and it worked!! He is from Rumania. The internet has let us cross all borders. It still boggles my mind on the KH Wed night thing that we can speak to each other from all parts of the world!!

Again, thank you all for trying to help me. Your efforts are truly appreciated!!

Vivienne

[casey]

Vivienne,

I actually read where one guy did turn off legacy support to fix this problem but he said this also
stopped all his USB devices. That's why I didn't say anything about that... Well just glad it's solved...

[Vivienne]

Hi casey

Vivienne,

I actually read where one guy did turn off legacy support to fix this problem but he said this also
stopped all his USB devices. That's why I didn't say anything about that... Well just glad it's solved...

So far they are working!! It feels so good when things work properly even if you don't need them.

Thanks casey, for the research that you did on my behalf!!

Vivienne