Windows 7 won't boot with external hard drive plugged in!

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Kiark

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Whenever I have my 3TB Seagate external hard drive plugged in to my computer on start-up, it always tries to boot from it. I have changed my BIOS settings to NOT allow it to boot into the external hard drive, but that hasn't worked.

This problem started to occur only after I re-installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 onto my 1TB INTERNAL hard drive (which I formatted and deleted all partitions on). I did this because I had just purchased a new motherboard and CPU and wanted to start fresh.

Other things I have tried:

  • ■ Plugging my internal hard drive's SATA cable into the first SATA slot.
    ■ Trying to use DISKPART to set the external hard drive's partition to INACTIVE and my internal hard drive to ACTIVE (not sure if that was even the right thing to do).
    ■ Disabling USB's from working on boot-up via the BIOS (I believe the option contained the phrase "USB Legacy").
    ■ Using the Windows 7 install disk to repair windows.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you.
 
Solution
J
ok you can't extend it due to the 2tb limit on MBR discs. To have it as one 3tb partition you need to convert it a GPT disc. Instructions for that can be found here http://www.thewindowsclub.com/convert-mbr-to-gpt-disk. The normal method is completed wipe the drive and start again, but it is possible to convert without losing data. Of course you do this at your own risk. That message pretty much confirms what i thought, your PC thinks it's a boot disk and tries to boot from it, puzzled why it's ignoring the boot order though. I'll have to think some more about that
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Kiark

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Yes, I have set the internal 1TB hard drive to boot before anything else.
 
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Joey2oo9

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Does your 3TB have any partitions on it that might appear as a CD drive. It's possible your PC is picking that up and trying to boot from it. So while your 1TB drive is the first hard it looks for, your PC thinks there's a CD and tries to boot from it first. What sort of motherboard do you have?
 
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Kiark

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It does indeed have a partition on it. The partition is not in use and I can't seem to get rid of it! I believe the partition is for about 40gb.

Every time I try to "Extend Volume" on the partition, I get a message saying it can't do it. I can't remember what the message stated exactly (as I am not on my PC at the moment) but I believe it said something about not being able to extend that much memory.

I have a ASRock H97M Pro4 motherboard.
 
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Joey2oo9

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You should be able to remove that 40gb partition using the 'Disk Management' section of the 'Computer Management' tool (Located in the Administrative Tools section of the Control Panel). If you can tell us what sort of motherboard you have (or if it's a DELL or something give us the model number) then we'd be able to tell you what the BIOS settings should be to stop your PC trying to boot the external drive
 
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Joey2oo9

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Well the motherboard manual proved rather useless, though it did say to only disable usb legacy support if you were having compatibility issues, which your not. It's definitely something in UEFI that's telling the PC to boot from the 3tb drive, but as i don't have a UEFI board i'm not familiar with the settings. With the 3tb drive connected turn on your PC and go into UEFI and see what the boot settings are. With the external drive connected you should be able to verify exactly what's going on with your boot priorities and change them.
 
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Kiark

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This is the error message I get when I try to Extend Volume on the 3TB drive:

"Only the first 2TB are usable on a large MBR disks. Cannot create partition beyond the 2TB mark, nor convert the disk to dynamic."

Well the motherboard manual proved rather useless, though it did say to only disable usb legacy support if you were having compatibility issues, which your not. It's definitely something in UEFI that's telling the PC to boot from the 3tb drive, but as i don't have a UEFI board i'm not familiar with the settings. With the 3tb drive connected turn on your PC and go into UEFI and see what the boot settings are. With the external drive connected you should be able to verify exactly what's going on with your boot priorities and change them.
Click to expand...

The boot order in the BIOS is listed as:

  • ■ Windows Boot Manager
    ■ AHCI P0: WDC WD10EARS-00Y5B1 (Internal drive)
    ■ AHCI P1: BENQ DVD CD DW240S (CD drive)
    ■ USB: Generic-Compact Flash 1.00
    ■ UEFI: (NTFS) Seagate Expansion Desk 070B (External drive)
I've tried disabling everything but the internal drive, but that hasn't worked so far.

I even disable the Seagate drive but it always re-appears. I think this happens because I keep plugging it in and out.

EDIT: Here's an image of the boot order.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-lgIaC-BT_5TDZiWmRGNnNFclU/edit?usp=sharing

EDIT 2: This could be important information. This is the message I get when I boot with the external hard drive plugged in:

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in Selected Boot Device and press a key"
 
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Joey2oo9

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ok you can't extend it due to the 2tb limit on MBR discs. To have it as one 3tb partition you need to convert it a GPT disc. Instructions for that can be found here http://www.thewindowsclub.com/convert-mbr-to-gpt-disk. The normal method is completed wipe the drive and start again, but it is possible to convert without losing data. Of course you do this at your own risk. That message pretty much confirms what i thought, your PC thinks it's a boot disk and tries to boot from it, puzzled why it's ignoring the boot order though. I'll have to think some more about that
 
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Solution
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Kiark

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Thank you for all your help so far. I'll have to try that out when I'm able to get on the PC in question again! Thanks again!
 
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Kiark

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Ok, so this is the situation right now. I ended up just wiping the external drive and converting it to GPT like you suggested. I now have a new but similar situation.

When I turn the computer on with the external drive plugged in, the computer hangs at the motherboard screen where you are given the option to press f2 to get to BIOS, etc. I'm not able to actually get into the BIOS or anything else on that screen. When I turn the computer on without it plugged in everything is ok, just like before.

I am absolutely stumped... Before my upgrade I never had any problems with my external drive.
 
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Kiark

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I changed the setting from "Smart Auto" to "Auto". Everything is still the same. :(
 
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Kiark

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It is connected to a USB 3.0 port! This makes no sense. I do have an update of the situation (well, kind of an update).

I formatted my internal drive AND the external drive. This is because I just received my new SSD and I installed Windows 7 on it. Every time I boot up I hang at the BIOS screen just like before, even though I changed my USB setting back to "Smart Auto".

I'm starting to think no one can solve this problem! haha!

SIDE NOTE: No more re-formatting for me! I've already got everything the way I like it (except for my boot problem).
 
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Joey2oo9

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I agree it makes no sense. I do have one more idea that might work, though not ideal, only UEFI can boot a GPT drive, if your machine booted up using the old fashioned BIOS it couldn't try to boot from the external drive as it's GPT. The downside of course is that UEFI is quicker to start up than via BIOS. I'm also not sure if you can switch your motherboard to boot in legacy BIOS mode.

Failing that remove the hard drive from it's enclosure and fit it internally, problem solved :)
 
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Kiark

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I couldn't find an option to change to the "old fashion" BIOS. I would make it an internal drive if I didn't want it to actually be an external drive, which I do :p

Thanks for your help, anyway, mate! I don't think I going to find a solution to this!
 
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Kiark

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You're not going to believe this.. I have done nothing different or changed any settings since the last time we talked yet my problem is solved.

I woke up this morning, turned the computer on (with the external drive plugged in) and it booted up like I never had a problem at all! I did this multiple times just to make sure it wasn't a one off thing. I even tried just restarting the computer and I get the same results! I have NO IDEA WHY it's working now, but it is!

Again, thanks for taking the time to help me! Problem solved!
 
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