External HDD crashes Vista 64

[accupulse]

I have a Dell Inspiron 545. Im trying to pull files form an IDE drive in an external enclosure. Everytime I plug it in the USB port the computer blue screens and tries to reboot. It will not reboot until I unplug the device.

1. I have updated the BIOS
2. I do not have an option for Legacy USB support in Bios.
3. Drive works flawlessly in all my other computers.

Any ideas?

 

[r_manic]

You might want to check the power on that Inspiron. Seems like plugging in your external hard drive may have put too much strain on your computer's power supply, causing instabilities and crashing the system.

 

[photonboy]

There are three possible causes here, both serious:

1) Your Power Supply is on the verge of failing so the extra strain is making your system unstable

2) Your external drive has a short causing power issues on your motherboard

3) You have another motherboard issue

I'd be very surprised if it was a software issue though I suppose I can't rule it out completely.

You should:
1) Get Ubuntu LIVE (you can run from CD or install using WUBI) and try the drive running Ubuntu
2) Try other USB drives on your system.

*WUBI will install Ubuntu as an application (so you can remove it through add/remove Program) but to access it you Reboot and choose it during Startup so you are not running it through Windows. This is really easy. If your drive works in Ubuntu then it's a Windows software glitch. if it crashes Ubuntu it's a hardware issue.

FYI, hard drives with AC adapters supply their own power meaning Cause #1 is unlikely in that case. Hard drives without AC adapters make Cause #1 more plausible.