My laptop won't boot if I leave my external HDDs plugged in.

[Prufrock]

As stated above, my lappy won't boot if the two external HDDs I have are left plugged into the USB ports. This is incredibly annoying, as I use my lappy as my main pc now, so don't want to have to keep unplugging and plugging things back in. It also does the same if I leave a USB memory key plugged in. It doesn't have a problem with my external HD DVD drive being left plugged in, mind. Is there anyway of making it boot with the drives left plugged in? I assume it's something to do with the BIOS settings?


Also, is it possible to set my HD DVD drive to auto-play? I'm using Vista Home Basic. At the moment, I have to manually start WinDVD 9 to play a disc. I've had a look at the auto-play settings, but in the drop down menu for HD-DVD, it doesn't have auto-play as an option.


Two questions in one thread to avoid cluttering up the board.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[staffsMike]

Could it be trying to boot from them? You would need to either turn USB boot off or maybe you could drop USB down the boot priority list if that is an option.

Could also be legacy USB support although if you disable that I guess a USB keyboard might not work during POST.

[Prufrock]

Could it be trying to boot from them? You would need to either turn USB boot off or maybe you could drop USB down the boot priority list if that is an option.

Could also be legacy USB support although if you disable that I guess a USB keyboard might not work during POST.

I'm not sure if the lappy is trying to boot from them...all I see is a black screen with a white flashing cursor in the top left hand corner. That's as far as it gets. I don't use a USB keyboard, so disabling legacy USB support wouldn't be too much of an issue. I'll reboot now and check the bios settings.


Thanks.

[TAKTAK]

my HTPC does this...

it just stops posting if there is an exHDD plugged in... assoon as you unplug it, it carries on (i haven't been bothered to change BIOS settings as i just turn the exHDD on a few seconds later than i would usually) but turning off boot from USB should fix it

[Prufrock]

Well, I changed the BIOS settings (seems when anything is plugged into the USB ports, they take priority away from the internal HDD), and the thing bluescreened on me. So, restored defaults and unplugged everything on the usb ports. Tried to reboot, and yet another bluescreen. Currently typing this from my old desktop, as my lappy is now refusing to boot at all (bluescreens during windows start up every time). I've run the vista repair thing a few times and it has just come up with the following:

ACLS on file C:\Windows\system32 KGyGAavl.sys are not proper. Old Volume= 0x12019f

Now on recovery console. Any ideas how to get rid of this thing? Seems it's a Dr. Divx file. Already tried system restore, but it only goes back 3 days. Not sure why it's playing up now, as the only thing installed in the last week were the drivers for the 360 HD-DVD drive.

[Prufrock]

OK, using command prompt via recovery, I can't find that sys file under windows\system32. It's not there. I don't have Dr Divx on my laptop, either. I've uninstalled K-Lite Codec pack using the uninstall exe in the K-Lite Codec pack folder via command prompt. Still bluescreening.

Bluescreen code:

0x0000007B (0X80399B0, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)


Bluescreens in safe mode, too.

[Prufrock]

OK, found out what was causing the bluescreen.....I restored the BIOS settings to default, which turned something on that shouldn't have been turned on. So now I've sorted out the BIOS settings, and set the machine to boot from internal HDD first, the thing boots with the external drives attached. So that's all sorted. Thanks for the help.


Second question - how do I get my 360 drive to auto-play upon inserting a disc?


Cheers.

[heyuptiger]

hmmm perhaps set priorities to your boot drive as the highest. have you tried a usb hub...

[Prufrock]

hmmm perhaps set priorities to your boot drive as the highest. have you tried a usb hub...

Cheers for that...all sorted by changing the boot order in BIOS. No idea why it was switching priority to the USB ports over the internal HDD, mind.

[tcorbyn]

sounds like changing the boot order in the bios would fix that