Maxtor and Windows 7

When I start my computer Windows 7 loads about half way and freezes. If I unplug and start again it will load normally.
Also, when I turn on or off a printer, my computer freezes.
Someone suggested unpluging the Maxtor, saying the computer wouldn't recognize it becasue it was a different brand than my internal hard drive.
Now everything works. The Maxtor appeared to be working fine with backups. Is this a driver problem? What is the solution?

Please provide more details to this "Maxtor". Is it a really old IDE hard drive? Because Maxtor was purchased by Seagate, I believe, like 6 years ago. What do you mean unplug it? Is it an external hard drive?

It makes absolutely no difference if the drive is different from your internal hard drive when it comes to recognizing it (unless you have a RAID setup, which you don't). The person who made that suggestion with that solution is just pulling random ideas from thin air--they know NOTHING about what's wrong with your computer and you should not trust them for computer advice.

But hearing about your freezes, I'm guessing your Windows installation is bad. Try reinstalling.

It probably came with some sort of restore disc. Insert the disc and restart. You might have to press F8 or something to choose to boot from the disc. Some manufacturers are now charging extra (like $16) for a restore disc and don't include them in the standard package. There's no guaranteeing that this will fix your problem, but it usually fixes crashing for me.

There are other possible causes though. For example, your computer may be attempting to boot from the Maxtor drive--which can't work if it doesn't have a working copy of windows on it. That might explain why it unplugging the Maxtor fixes it. You could also just make sure your BIOS is set to boot from the correct Hard Drive. But turning off your printer should NEVER crash windows--which is what made me think it was a Windows problem. Have you installed all Windows 7 updates?

Hmmm--really? When you turn the printer on or off, the Maxtor turns on? That sounds like an issue related to your USB bus. Either your computer recognizes devices when you turn off the printer because it causes it to recheck what's connected through USB ports or the Maxtor gets enough power to turn on.

Are they both connected to front panel USB or in the back? Because front ports share the same power. If they're in the back, then there's probably plenty of power (the 5W available through a USB cable). In which case, it would be an issue with recognizing what's plugged in.

Have you installed all Windows 7 updates? Go to your Device Manager (several ways, try Right-Clicking "My Computer"-->Properties-->Device Manager. See if there are any <!> symbols. If there are, what item are they under? Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controllers indicates a USB device problem and could be a driver issue.