Disk Mgt takes >1 min to load with USB devices plugged in

[highstream]

A program that's occasionally been throwing up a "can't-find-a-drive" message at computer startup got me looking around today at USB hookups because the drive in question was a removable one hooked to a Canon inkjet printer. In the process, I noticed that Win 8.1 Disk Management and EaseUs Partition Master were taking anywhere from 1:20 to 2 minutes to fully load. So I unplugged the printer USB and a USB 3.0 flash drive, both in 3.0 ports, rebooted and now Disk Mgt and Partition Master took but a couple of seconds to load everything. I took a look in BIOS, but other than trying to disable the two USB connections that show well down in boot order - it didn't appear to accept disable - I couldn't see anything else that might be involved. Any ideas what might be going on? See system specs. Thanks,

 

[ComputerGeek]

I recently had a similar situation where it took a looong time for Disk Management to load. It was due to a failing USB external drive. See if your problem is localized to the flash drive being plugged in. If so, probably a defective flash drive and not a machine or Windows issue. (if it's the flash drive, you'll have similar problem on a different computer too)

 

[highstream]

I'm talking about two USB connections being involved - there are others, but they don't seem to be at issue. One is a printer, which is readily recognized, and the other is a USB stick on the end of a long cable. The flash drive is readily recognized by the desktop computer file manager and by an Oppo 103. Unplugging the printer shortened the time for disk management to come up by roughly 40-60 seconds. The other USB connections that are another printer and a transmitter for a mouse.