BIOS Configuration

[BudProd]

I have recently purchased an external desktop hard drive, which plugs into a USB2 port and has its own power supply.

I particularly want to use this drive for backup purposes.

Until I tried to ‘install’ the hard drive, my ‘hp’ PC would boot or reboot directly from the C drive partition, with no problems.

I now find that if I have left the external hard drive plugged into a USB port, and attempt to boot or reboot the PC, then the boot sequence stops after part of the ‘hp’ boot screen appears, and will not continue until I unplug the external hard drive.
If I then plug the drive into the USB port once more, I find that I am unable to log-in to any user from the displayed list, until I unplug the drive once again.
(I have the impression that the USB drive may have some sort of precedence, [similar to the old floppy discs] which I cannot see in my BIOS configuration information)

Once I have a user desktop available, I can then re-plug the drive and access it via windows explorer or via “My Computer”.

I would prefer to be able to leave the drive plugged in all the time, so that I don’t have to have cables draped across my ‘office’ desk!

My PC is an HP model G5345uk, now running Windows 7 64 bit Professional, and the external Hard Drive is a Maxtor Basics 500 GB.
Any help would be most gratefully received!

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

Sounds like the boot process is set to use USB first.

When your machine boots, use F10 (i believe this is the key. if you watch the boot screen process where you see the HP logo, it should tell you either F2, F10 or sometimes F12.) to get into the BIOS.

Once in the BIOS, look across the top. You should see several topics. One of which should be BOOT. Use the right arrow to move to that and the down arrow to change to the below options. Look for something indicating BOOT ORDER. DEVICE PRIORITY may be an option.

If you cannot find the location, you can do a BIOS default reset. If the BIOS is not something you typically venture into, then chances are you are not going to mess anything up. A BIOS reset should put the default parameters into the system and thus change the boot order to a default of optical or SATA 0 (typically the primary boot disk).

If all else fails, hit it really hard with a hammer.