External HDD disconnects on boot

[Tekno Venus]

I've been trying to set up a new backup system for all the computers in the house to ensure all our photos and data are safely backed up.

I've bought the software and we have external HDDs. The HDD in this scenario is a 2TB Seagate Desktop expansion drive. It's a few years old now but served us well and seems in good health.

However, I'm having an issue. The drive is connected to the back on a Dell Inspiron 545 desktop running Windows 7 (OEM install - I've never re-installed it). The drive is fine when you connect it and works perfectly until the computer reboots. When the machine reboots, the drive is no longer connected to the computer and it doesn't show up in My Computer. Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark (not sure what the error code is right now) for a USB device.

By disconnecting the power cable from the drive and re-powering up the drive it appears fine.

I've tried the two free rear USBs and have had the same issue. I can't really connect to the front USBs.

Anyone have any ideas or troubleshooting steps?

-Stephen

 

[blueelvis]

Hey Stephen ^_^,

Did you try uninstalling the Device Driver from the Device Manager (When the drive is fully functional?). Uninstall the driver. Disconnect the drive and then reboot your system and connect the drive. See if you are still having this issue or not?

Also, can you make sure that automatic device driver installation is enabled?
How to stop Windows 7 automatically installing drivers

The above guide is for DISABLING Automatic Driver installation . Kindly follow the reverse of it and see if it works or not.


-Pranav

 

[Digerati]

This is such a common problem yet it has no common resolution. Instead, there are dozens of possible solutions and it is up to the users to figure out which works for them. If any do. Sadly, USB 2.0 was supposed to fix this. It didn't. Then USB 3.0 was supposed to fix it. It didn't. :banghead:

For this reason, I avoid and don't recommend the use of USB external drives.

I avoided the problem by going with eSATA instead of USB for my external drive docking station. But that really was not good because it required the "host" computer be up and running in order for me to access the drive from my other networked computers. Plus, not all motherboards support eSATA.

So my solution was to repurpose my old XP system as a NAS and I recommend folks with perfectly good XP systems sitting around do this (or get a NAS instead of a USB external drive).

By disconnecting the power cable from the drive and re-powering up the drive it appears fine.

That suggests to me a USB timing issue during the boot process and I don't know a solution for that - especially since you indicated this device has its own external power supply.

What others have done when no solution was found is to convert their external drive into a NAS with a USB to NAS adapter. To me, the biggest advantage a NAS provides over an external drive is that it hangs off your network, not a host computer. So any computer on your network can access it without a host computer being up and running, AND without needing to open up sharing on the host computer either.

Another advantage is the NAS can sit in another part of your house. I have a client who's house was robbed and the badguys took his computer and his attached external drive which contained the only copies of many of his digital family photos and other files. If the NAS were in another part of his house the burglars may not have taken it.

 

[Anthony N]

Welp this thread answered that question for me. My desktop is having issues with the USB controller. Nice to know that they still haven't fixed the problem. Thankfully my external drive offers eSATA so when I get a motherboard that supports it I know exactly what I'm going to be doing with it.