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USB HDD Taking over Boot Sequence

T

Tolwyn

Junior Member
Hello all,

This problem has been bugging me for ages. Here's the long and short of it:

I have a Shuttle XPC ST61G4 with a Maxtor 250GB SATA 16MB Cache drive running Windows XP Pro SP2. I have a Maxtor 150GB EIDE in an USB 2.0 enclosure.

The BIOS is set to only boot the Hard Drive (Not USB Hard Drive or anything else). Whenever I reboot/restart the computer with the Maxtor USB drive plugged into the PC, it will take over the boot sequence for some reason. As a result, since there is no OS onboard, the BIOS/CMOS will say that there is an invalid disk and it cannot boot.

I've already used Super FDISK to erase the MBR on the Maxtor USB drive successful. I've even completely deleted all partitions, reformated, the whole deal. I know its the Maxtor USB drive causing this weird boot sequence problem because if I remember to unplug it from the PC, the system will boot just fine using the Maxtor SATA internal drive as usual.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me? I really want to leave it plugged in and never worry about it.

My computer:
Shuttle XPC ST61G4 (Onboard video is disabled)
http://global.shuttle.com/Product/b...iew.asp?B_id=28
Onboard PSU: 250W (PFC)
Intel P4 2.8GHz Hyperthreaded 800FSB
Kingston PC3200 DDR 2x512MB RAM
Sapphire X1600 PRO 512MB AGP
Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic (Onboard sound is disabled)
Maxtor 250GB 7200RPM SATA 16MB Cache - In Shuttle
Maxtor 150GB 7200RPM EIDE 8MB Cache - USB 2.0 Enclosure
Samsung 215TW 21" LCD Monitor (DVI used)
 
The same thing happened with an old MB of mine and wouldn't boot into Windows if I happened to have my USB flash drive plugged in. I never really tried fixing the problem, but do you have an option in the BIOS to disable "boot from USB"?
 
No, I've looked for that option as well. The BIOS does allow for 4-5 boot sequences, and USB - HDD/CD type ones are available. I have it set only to Hard Drive, but no go.
 
There is an easy work around until you figure out your BIOS controls. Just don't plug the USB drive in until the system is booted.
 
Sorry about that - but, . . . you have something wrong in your BIOS. Even if the USB device comes first, if there is nothing bootable, it is supposed to then move on to the next.

Try setting everything to like it was when you bought it and remove all extra stuff. Then proceed to install things one at a time and see when it misbehaves.
 
I've completely reset the BIOS without any luck. I suspect its a very strange feature that my Shuttle board has built into my MB. Last weekend, I actually stripped everything down to a single HDD, no extra cards, and freshly reset BIOS. This might be something I have to live with until I get a new unit. Not really a big deal I suppose to unplug the USB drive, its only if the computer resets itself when I'm away from home (I travel a lot and the computer stays on for remote purposes), then it'll just hang.

Only way, I've gotten around it so far is to burn a bootable CD that just times out after the PC has booted to the CD drive and then goes to the first onboard HDD. That seems to work well, but again, leaving a CD all the time in the drive. Oh well. Thanks anyhow!
 
Originally posted by: Tolwyn
. . . but again, leaving a CD all the time in the drive. Oh well. Thanks anyhow!
Click to expand...


Noithing wrong with that! I always leave a music or video DVD in my ROM drive - it is a fraction faster on boot that way - takes less time to sense a non-bootable CD than to look for one that isn't there.
 
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