Problems booting PC with external HDD attached

I'm not sure if this is necessarily Acronis True Image related, but I can't seem to boot my PC when the external hard disk is attached.

Everything fires up right away when I remove the external disk, however. My PC keeps throwing at me "Verifying DMI Pool Data" with the external HDD. Acronis tells me that my internal drive (C) has bad blocks and that I should replace the faulty hard disk drive(!). But why does everything start up as soon as I disconnect the external HDD?

Can anyone help me boot my PC in a normal way - and with the external HDD attached? Thanks.

Best,
Mark
Norway

 

I'm not sure your question is relevant to this particular forum... but, have you checked you device boot order in your BIOS?

F

 

Thanks for replying. Yes, I have checked the order of things: HDD 1 is first, the DVD station second and my external hard disk third.

Best,
Mark

 

Mark, What happens if you remove the external drive from the boot order in the BIOS ?

Xpilot

 

What’s on the external drive?
Can you see it OK after you boot and then reattach it?
Have you run a complete scan/repair of the drive?

 

I've seen this with several computers. As soon as Windows starts loading you can plug in the USB device. It can happen with USB flash drives too. Seems to freeze at the end of the POST.

 

It happened to me twice this week. Advanced Server 2000 would
not boot with 200GB USB drive connected. The other was
Windows 2000 pro with the same USB drive. I don't think it's
related to Acronis but it's strange that they both had Acronis TI
recently installed. The server had TI9.1 workstation. I don't know
why it happens or what to do about it.

- Mooron

 

Thanks again, you guys, for your helpful replies.

And to TheWeaz: yeah, I can see everything on the external drive once this is reattached. I've also run a scan of the drives - and the drive appears to be fine. I should mention, too, that this was bought just a couple of weeks ago. I've been in touch with the company, and they suggested updating the BIOS on my PC. Does anyone know how to do that??

Best,
Mark

 

You need to identify the manufacturer and model of your motherboard, and go to their site. Download the latest compatable BIOS for you model of motherboard, together with a flash program which installs it, from the site.

You will need to copy these to a boot medium to run the flash program. All the instructions should be given on the manufacturer's website.

F