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Vista slow boot with USB External Drive


Echolomax

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Hi All,

I've a new problem with Vista, I bought a Western Digital MyBook 500Go, the disk starts and stops with the computer.

And now when i boot my computer takes around 3min before starting Vista,when I unplug my USB drive, it starts immediatly.

Who got this problem? :ph34r:

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Hi All,

I've a new problem with Vista, I bought a Western Digital MyBook 500Go, the disk starts and stops with the computer.

And now when i boot my computer takes around 3min before starting Vista,when I unplug my USB drive, it starts immediatly.

Who got this problem? :ph34r:

Are you using USB 2.0?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sadly this seams to be a problem with all WD MyBooks, i have one and know others that have exactly the same probmlem under vista.

If enough people complain WD might issue a vista specific driver to fix this problem, espicially considering its still a current product, however until then there is no known fix.

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Is your AV possibly checking the disk prior to allowing the GUI to load? Your initial testing seems to indicate that the drive is causing the boot to slow, and if you unplug it Vista boots normally - which, in turn, indicates that Vista is doing *something* to the drive - virus scan, checking integrity, or something else....

Also, if you leave the drive off until Vista is fully booted, then power the drive, how log before you are able to access files? If it is the same period, then it may not be Vista at all, but as fp said something about those drives themselves....

I tried a USB 2.0 card in a system without USB 2.0 and in Vista it would recognize my devices (all UFDs) but ate every one of them for lunch.

I proceeded to buy a new motherboard to compensate....

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My problem with Vista and USB was a bit more hostile. I had an external DVD dual layer drive. The install was very slow between steps. However, the real problem was after vista was installed and running. It would eventually cause an instant power off. I would have to unplug the power supply and wait several minutes before I could get the sytem to power back on. It would then boot up and instantly power off instead of going to the desktop. I replaced the power supply, cpu and memory. Still happened. It wasn't until I powered off the dvd drive that it was suddenly able to boot back into Vista 64 Ultimate. When I tried to turn the drive back on while in Windows, Vista instantly hard locked. I was able to repeat the problems. So I took the DVD drive out of the external chassis and hooked it up on the IDE port of my motherboard. It worked fine after that. The system is also much more responsive.

So it seems Vista has some incompatibilites with external usb storage devices.

MSI K9A Platinum - bios 1.73 Beta, also tried 1.5 1.6 and 1.61 beta

AMD AM2 6000+

Mushkin 4GB (2x2GB) 5-4-4-12

Onboard SATA controller in RAID mode

WD Raptor 150 GB

WD GO 500GB internal

Maxtor 250GB

Pioneer 111D - now internal, firmware 1.29

ATI X1900 Crossfire and ATI X1900XT

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  • 1 month later...

I'm having the same problem in Vista Ultimate (x86). WD 500 external causes one of 2 problems. Either the PC takes 3 minutes to get to the login screen (unplugging the drive causes it to start in 15 seconds); or the PC fails to boot at all (hangs at the BIOS info screen). In all cases, unplugging the drive solves the issue.

Interestingly, if you leave the drive off at start up, then plug it in once the PC is booted, I have access to the files immediately.

I'm running Vista Ultimate (x86) on a Pentium Core 2 Quad-core with 4GB RAM. There is no reason I should be having any delay with this drive. Please tell me someone has found a fix... I'm just past 30 days on my friggin' return limit!

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I guess I'm not the only one.

I have an 80 Gig WD external.

Acer Aspire E700

Vista Home Premium (Was on the machine when I bought it)

Intel Quad Core

2030 MB Ram

32-Bit OS

Radeon X1650

it takes a long time to load and a long time to actually see the HD under my computer.

.

.

.

I also used to have similar problems under XP running slow with my Wacom, usb scanner or anything in the USB port other than a mouse or printer.

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Having this problem for months now, I have called WD several times, and they claim it's a vista problem. (ironicaly the product is "vista ready")

What i've found out the last weeks is that the bios detects it as a bootdrive and somehow vista can't handle that.

Basically both Micro$haft and WD are too lazy to take up this problem, waiting for eachother to fix it.

I'm very close to smashing the case to very tiny pieces and just use the bare drive instead :angry:

Edited by Phorze
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I've had this issue since I purchased my 160GB USB WD External Hard Drive. Vista takes 3 minutes or longer to load with it plugged in but if I uplug it vista takes less than 30 seconds to load. I also hate that it take almost 5 minutes to recognize the drive if I plug it in after vista loads yet if I plug it in on a system that has xp it takes less than 5 seconds to access it. Something needs to be done about this or i'm gonna have to get rid of thois one and go to another brand (I don't want to do that).

I also have this slow loading problem when my external dvdrw drive is plugged in.

Edited by adrian2055
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Found on another forum

Well, I have Vista and I connected the My Book to a pci-USB expansion card instead of the onboard USB slots and it no longer shows up in my bios as an available boot-up device and now everything works fine. No longer hangs Vista during boot up and only takes about 20 seconds to load into windows. Definitely had to be a bios related issue for motherboards made pre-Vista. Something with bootable USB devices does not work properly.
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From what I've been told USB devices can be used to help Vista better manage memory and speed up access via rerouting data from a HDD to USB memory.

I am wondering if the Windows Ready Boost is somehow interfering with your boot up during Vista start up.

Could you check to see if it's disabled just to be sure that Vista isn't trying to use this USB external drive as a cache area?

Maybe Vista is having difficulties determining whether the USB device is a memory device or a HDD.

Add a 2GB or higher USB Flash drive to take advantage of Windows Ready Boost (Additional Memory Cache)

Ready Boost is Microsoft’s name for using a USB thumb/flash drive to provide some quick access memory the operating system can use as extra RAM. The Ready Boost system can significantly improve system performance.

To set this up:

Insert a USB Flash Drive

Click Start then Computer

Right Click the USB Drive in My Computer

Select the Ready Boost Tab

Choose Use this device

Select as much space as you can free up for RAM usage vs. Storage

Good Luck

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