# Computer won't start with external hard drive connected?



## themighty

I recently bought a 1TB MyBook, and converted it from fat32 to NTFS. Now, when I start up the computer with the hard drive connected, the computer will not boot and stays on a black screen. The only way of getting the computer to start is by unplugging the hard drive and turning the computer off and on again. Can anybody help? I'm running Vista 32, and my previous hard drive, a Maxtor, works fine when I turn the computer on.


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## 3uL

It try to find OS in the external drive. Go bios and set your OS harddrive as first boot device.


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## Aastii

Go to the bios (look below for how to do it if you don't know) and go to the boot tab. Go to device priority and then make sure it is: cd then hard drive then external. Try booting now.

To go to the bios when you turn on the computer there will be a black screen with white writing. press del. key while it is on the screen. You may have to repeatedly press it until it comes on. Some motherboards need you to press an f key to go to the bios, i think it is f8. It will say at the bottom of this black screen the key.


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## themighty

I went to the bios, which was F2 on my computer, and then went to the boot section, and my devices are already listed as - 1st - CDROM, 2nd - Hard Disk, 3rd - Removable, 4th - Network. Under "Hard Disk Boot Priority" it has "ST336032OAS", but I'm not sure what that means. This is all with the external hard drive not connected to the computer. When I connect the hard drive in when already in the bios, the computer freezes again, and I can't access the bios if the hard drive is already connected when I start the computer, as the screen freezes at the "Packard Bell" page. Any ideas what I should do?


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## Aastii

themighty said:


> I went to the bios, which was F2 on my computer, and then went to the boot section, and my devices are already listed as - 1st - CDROM, 2nd - Hard Disk, 3rd - Removable, 4th - Network. Under "Hard Disk Boot Priority" it has "ST336032OAS", but I'm not sure what that means. This is all with the external hard drive not connected to the computer. When I connect the hard drive in when already in the bios, the computer freezes again, and I can't access the bios if the hard drive is already connected when I start the computer, as the screen freezes at the "Packard Bell" page. Any ideas what I should do?



The socket you are using to connect the drive, is it USB and also is it on the front/top of your computer?


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## 3uL

If I not wrong, 'ST336032OAS' is one of the seagate harddisk.
Change the harddisk boot priority to your os harddisk.


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## themighty

Aastii said:


> The socket you are using to connect the drive, is it USB and also is it on the front/top of your computer?



It's connected to the front of the computer using USB, but I also tried connecting it to the back and the same thing happened. 

To 3uL: When I go to the properties of my C drive, which is where my OS is located, it says under hardware 'ST336032OAS ATA Device', so I'm guess thats the same on.


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## themighty

I've been looking around, and some people are saying that switching off USB Legacy support, but I can't find the option under the bios on my Packard Bell.


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## 3uL

Better don't switch it off or else usb 1.1 device will not function.
Have you change harddisk boot priority??


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## vnvnvn2000

Disconnect the external drive and reboot. Enter the BIOS setup and navigate to the setup priority (or setup order) screen. 

While some BIOS's will tell the difference, some versions think a USB drive is a CD and will attempt to boot from it if CD is first in boot order (sometimes a manufacturer will leave it first after the machine setup). Make sure the hard drive is first in boot order, save, then try again.


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## themighty

The boot order was already 1st - CDROM, 2nd - Hard Disk, 3rd - Removable, 4th - Network, but now I've turn off all the options except Hard Disk, and I still freezes when I put the MyBook in. Is it possible that the boot order isn't the problem? When I plug the external hard in when I am already on the bios screen, the computer freezes too.


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## themighty

Sorry to be a pest, but can anybody help me? MyBooks are pretty popular, so I'm guessing I'm not the only one who had this problem. Is switching off USB Legacy support not a good option?


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## johnb35

Switching off legacy usb allows any usb devices like a mouse or keyboard to work before actually entering windows environment.  So if you don't have it enabled and you have a usb keyboard then you won't be able to access the bios or boot into safe mode.

As far as your external drive, try it in another computer and see what happens.  It sounds like its trying to boot to it when its plugged in or the drive is already bad.


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## PaulLodder

Hello im a computer novice when it comes to the understanding of how they run so bare with me here, i too have a packard bell and i use an external hard drive when i leave the external hard drive pluged in the front via usb it never gets past the packard bell logo screen where you can press F2 / F8 for bios etc, usually i normally think (oh yes the extrenal HD, i forget the pc wont load with it in) and unplug it, i do this all the time and have done for around a year or so, today i had to restart my pc, same thing happend, i unplugged it from the front but the pc wouldnt go further, so i restarted my pc and now all i have is a black screen.

Turn the pc on , the front light comes on, the pc fan starts spinning, all the usual load up noises happen but i get nothing, no cursor, no logos, no white writing, no options, nothing.

I tried turning my pc on and off like 10 times, still nothing, left it around 30 mins tried again still nothing, then tried tacking out my Ram cleaning it etc, still nothing, thats when i googled packard bell / black screen and for this thread, it seems very very similar to what im experiancing can anyone help me get past a black screen when i cant actually click or do anything?

Thanks.


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## johnb35

You need to scan that drive for errors.  It seems external drives have a higher failure rate then internal drives.


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## PaulLodder

how do i scan my drive for errors, i forgot to mention i dont use the exteranl hard drive for anything other than storing music / videos / pics on etc, so now when i dont even have it or need it plugged in my pc still wont get past the black screen, it feels like when i was on the packard bell screen before and i pulled the usb put it did something because when i restarted all i get now is the black screen.


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## johnb35

You need to find out what brand of hard drive you have that won't boot up now.  You will need to download the drive diagnostic utility and run it.  What brand hard drive do you have(the drive that won't boot up now)?


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## PaulLodder

i took the case of and found out that this is my hard drive.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...cde12110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&locale=en-US

hopefully that will help 

Thx Paul


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## johnb35

You will need to download the iso image for seatools from a different computer and then use burning software to burn the iso image to a cd and then boot to the cd and run the extended test.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=480bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Use the information on this link on how to burn the iso image.

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=201431&NewLang=en


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## PaulLodder

Just to get this straight before i do this, i download the file, burn it as iso to a cd by following the bottom link and then put it in the cd drive of my pc which isnt working, turn it on and hopefully something should happen?


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## johnb35

As long as you have the cd rom as first boot device in the bios it will boot to the cd.  Then you'll have to run the extended test.  If you have any computer savvy friends, you might want to ask for help.


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