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External USB 3.0 Seagate drive not powering itself up on restart/startup.

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  • Storage
October 6, 2014 5:55:50 AM

I have an External USB 3.0 Seagate drive that is new. I also downloaded Seagate tools and did a test and found no issues with it. This issue also seems to be OS independent and happens on the hardware/drive/BIOS level.

Whenever I reset my computer, I notice the light indicator on my external usb still does not come back on, and even when Windows 7 loads, it still does not pick up the usb drive and the light is still off. However if I unplug and plug it back (regardless of whether from the usb port side or the other side) it immediately shows up and is usable without any further issues. But the next time I reset my computer, it doesn’t see it anymore. This is true whether I do this inside Windows or in the BIOS stage before the OS even loads.

The only way I can get it to see it and to power up itself on restart is if I hit the switch on my PSU to turn off power completely, turn the switch to ON on the PSU, and then power up my computer from a cold dark reboot. Then I heard a lot of whirring noises and it seems a lot of juice is being sucked up and everything is powering on, and it is only in this cold start that I see my external usb drive light comes back on, and then when Windows loads it picks up and recognizes the drive without issue.

However if I soft reset the machine, or power down the machine without power cycling the PSU, the next time I boot up the sound is noticeably MUCH quieter, and also the light on the external USB does NOT come back on. However, I can immediately unplug and plug the usb drive back into the same usb port and it will come back on… But if I do a warm boot or soft reset it never seems to pick it up itself without me having to unplug it and plug it back in.

How can I set the BIOS or whatever to get this to work without having to power cycle the PSU or unplug and re-plug the external usb cable each and every time I reboot or shutdown and start the PC back up?

Is there a way to force the motherboard to shutdown for good, so that when I power it back up it does the cold boot each and every time?

I have already configured in Device Manager usb root to never shut off power and in power options to never suspend usb power, but this is not an OS issue. This seems to be an issue with either the mobo or usb drive itself or the way it is configured at the hardware settings.

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