boot problem

I have an odd situation and hope someone can help.

I run Windows 7 32 bit with 2 on-board hard drives and 3 usb drives.
The problem is that in order to boot up the os or reboot when asked I must unplug 2 of the USB drives in order for the boot to work. After that I can plug the drives back in and the system recognizes the with the same drive letters.

Any ideas and help is appreciated.

Regards,

Werner

Since you didn't state what it is you want; I'm going to guess that what you want is NOT to have to unplug them every time?

What type of computer do you have, Make/Model? Are the internal drives SATA, SCSI, or IDE? Does it always have to be the same two drives or just any 2 of the 3? Are they all plugged into the motherboard directly or are you using a USB hub? Are all the USB slots the same USB Root Hub or are some maybe plugged in the front and others to slots in the rear? Do any of the drives have an OS on them?

I have the same issue with the one portable hard drive I have which is both eSATA and USB 2.0, if it's hooked up to the USB cable, the motherboard won't boot past the POST at all.

It's just one of those glitches with the mobo not Windows 7. It only happens when I forget about it. So I just press the "Restart" button and unplug the USB drive.

Thanks for your reply. The MoBo is an ASUS PL5-MX and the drives inside are Sata and the USB drives are IDE. They are plugged directly to the MoBo not to a hub. I have to unplug the same 2 drives each time. They do not have any OS on them. They are used as backup drives and storage drives for movies and music and pictures (all clean) Sometimes I put a Hirens disk into the optical drive to help it along but the drises still have to be unplugged. I had a friend look at this problem (he is a professional tech) and found nothing wrong with the OS (Win 7).

I hope this is enough information to help you help me.

Best regards,

Werner

if Im reading this correctly your usb drives are ide to usb (that has its own power) my next question is are you using a addon card or MoBo for the 2 USB drives

Okay, I figured it out. At least this fix worked for me.

Boot into your BIOS and go to "Integrated Peripherals", disable "USB Storage Function" and you should be able to boot as before. It's a "Legacy" setting which means it was designed for older operating systems prior to Windows XP. Leave the "USB Mouse" and "USB Keyboard" functions enabled if either of those are connect via a USB cable. That way you can navigate the BIOS with no difficulty.

I had forgotten I had enabled this sometime back, why I did I don't know. The system used to boot up okay and then it didn't and now it does again with a USB external hard drive plugged-in and powered on.

Try it and see how it works for you.