PC hangs at post screen when external HDD is attached

erkme73

New Member
Messages
14
I'm running 8.1 on a newly purchased Acer TC-603. It's a dedicated machine for a networked video recording system. It runs Blue Iris, and records from about 25 IP cameras, storing the images on an external 4TB USB3.0 HDD.

Everything works as it should, until the system reboots or powers up. At that point, I get past the post screen, where it detects two SATA drives (the internal SSD and the internal DVD), but then hangs. It will not continue. I have to turn off the PC (or ctrl-alt-del) and pull the USB cable from the external drive before it will load into W8.

I've read other accounts of this happening, and have tried the various suggested solutions (i.e. disable USB legacy support in BIOS), but nothing seems to be working.

I'm quite familiar with changing the boot order on all of my other PCs (W7). But on this machine, the options are limited to "Windows Boot Manager", removable media, LAN. But how does one tell the WBM to only look at the internal SATA connected drive, and ignore the USB drive?

I've never seen a BIOS that had Windows Boot Manager listed.

I've turned off secure boot. I've disabled legacy USB. I've disabled the Launch CMS feature (with then allowed the PC to detect USB thumbdrives on the f12 boot menu). But no matter what I do, I HAVE to remove the external HDD for the system to boot.

Needless to say, for a security-sensitive application, having a PC that relies on the HDD for storing video removed is not an option.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
If your HD is corrupted then it might cause the PC to hang at boot up. I suggest that you run chkdsk from the elevated command prompt:

chkdsk X: /r /f where X is your external HD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Thanks, TG. I am currently moving the files off of the drive. Once that finishes, I'll do the chkdsk. FWIW, I tried to convert the disk to dynamic - at which point it warned me that the drive would no longer be able to boot an OS (YEA!) - but when I committed to the task, it reported "Virtual Disk Manager: The operation is not supported by the object." It's currently formatted with a single partion, GPT.

1hr 15 min to go on the transfer. I will post back what I find.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
Why would you want to convert to dynamic disk ? Dynamic disk provide features such as the ability to create volumes that span multiple disks (spanned and striped volumes) and the ability to create fault-tolerant volumes (mirrored and RAID-5 volumes). Are you using any of those features on an external HD ? I doubt it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
I just want to do something, anything, so that the OS recognizes this as a non-bootable drive. Other than formatting, I don't see any other options that explicitly cause the drive to be non-bootable. Admittedly, I am not familiar with what the other pro/con issues are.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
Ok, so the elevated command prompt chkdsk completed:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk H: /r /f
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is BlueIrisA.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...

256 file records processed.
File verification completed.
0 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...

280 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.

12 data files processed.
Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
240 files processed.
File data verification completed.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...

976646166 free clusters processed.
Free space verification is complete.
Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

3815316 MB total disk space.
113728 KB in 7 files.
0 KB in 14 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
186208 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
3815024 MB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
976721151 total allocation units on disk.
976646167 allocation units available on disk.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

After 7 hours, no errors found. My father, who bought a similar acer model (TC-605 vs. my TC-603) has the exact same issue. With any external drive attached, the PC hangs at the post screen just after recognizing the two internal SATA drives.

Any other ideas on how to get Windows Boot Manager to ignore the attached HDD?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
I don't think you can disable to bypass the USB at boot. Let us try something else:
  1. Run regedit and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intel\InfInst
    the version should be: 10.0.20
    if not, then download the latest version of Intel Chipset drivers. This will updates all the drivers on your MB including the USB.
  2. Check with ACER if you have the latest BIOS firmware installed.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Apparently my Intel version is 9.2.0.1015. Going to upgrade now...

Edited to add: The version is actually 9.4.0.1017, which Acer claims is the most recent version. Intel's website doesn't have support for this board as it's an Acer product. If I were to guess (Series 8 board), I could download the 9.4.0.1027 driver - which was released the same month of 2013.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
And, it would appear the BIOS installed is the most recent (P11-A4).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
The version is actually 9.4.0.1017, which Acer claims is the most recent version. Intel's website doesn't have support for this board as it's an Acer product. If I were to guess (Series 8 board), I could download the 9.4.0.1027 driver - which was released the same month of 2013.
The Intel chipset drivers will work with any intel based MB. It does not matter if your laptop is ACER, DELL etc...
Since it came from Intel, the manufacturers sometimes fail to update it, therefore You would have to download directly from Intel
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=20775&lang=eng&ProdId=816
The latest version listed from Intel is 10.0.13.
FYI, since the latest version is: 10.0.20, for my MB, I downloaded this version from a european site:
Intel
If you wish to try this. Make sure you create a restore point before the installation.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
I'm a bit cool to the idea of installing the software just yet. Perhaps if I've exhausted all other possibilities.

In the meantime, I did a little more searching on the problem. It appears most >2TB drives are formatted with GPT instead of MBR. The GPT contains UEFI boot information. My guess is that this UEFI info is tricking the "Windows Boot Manager" to include it in the startup sequence. I've connected an external 2TB that is MBR formatted, and the PC will boot without issue.

Of course, I could convert the 4TB drive to MBR, but that would result in two partitions of 2TB. Ordinarily this would be a legitimate compromise, but my application needs as large a single partition as possible to minimize user maintenance.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
OK, You did not mention anything about this UEFI boot partition in your external HD. Does it really have a hidden partition ? can you verify it from Disk Management screen ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
No, that's just it, there isn't anything visible. Just a single partition that takes up the entire drive. But with GPT, it locks up on boot. The drive was wiped last night, so it's no big deal for me to convert to MBR and prove that it'll boot.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
So, formatting the drive as MBR effectively solved the problem. However, the balance of the drive (1.6Tb or so) is unallocated, and cannot be formatted. This effectively makes the 4TB a 2TB - not a solution.

Is there no way to modify the Windows Boot Manager to look exclusively to the internal SATA drive during boot?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
First, in the BIOS, you should set the internal HD as the first boot device and that's all you can do. Second, you might want to re-initialize your external HD to be GPT using diskpart.


  1. from the elevated command prompt, type: diskpart
  2. list disk
  3. select disk # where # is the disk number of your 4TB HD
  4. clean
  5. exit

Open disk management and right click on the 4TB disk and initialize to be GPT and follow the following screens to complete.

EDIT: Again, you might want to install the latest Intel Chipset drivers as said above.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
BIOS has no such option. Under HDD, the only option is "Windows Boot Manager". There are other options such as "removable devices" and "Lan" - but digging into the HDD selection shows no actual drive. Just that WBM.

The diskpart will take all night - I'll give that a go this evening.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
The diskpart will take all night - I'll give that a go this evening.
It only takes few minutes, not all night.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
I have that problem with a 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus external USB 3.0 drive. I just don't plug it in until after the system has booted.

The GPT drive is not related to UEFI except Windows decided the boot drive had to be configured as GPT. But you can run a GPT drive in Windows using MBR, just as long as it isn't the boot drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Ok, diskpart/clean completed, no difference. Still hangs. Saltgrass, the problem is, what if your computer power cycles while away from home and you need to get on it? I can certainly babysit it when I'm at home, but for a "superior" platform, it sure seems like we're walking backwards.

Guess I'll give the chipset drivers a go now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
Created a restore point, and installed the 10.0.13 update from Intel. Rebooted, no change. There has got to be a solution to this. I can't imagine this isn't a widespread problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer TC-603
    CPU
    i7 4770
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated
    Sound Card
    integrated
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