Windows XP help - External drive question

Ralph Fox wrote:
On 4 Jan 2020 17:41:39 GMT, KenK wrote:

I have a Seagate Expansion Portable Drive external drive amd have a problem
with it. If it is plugged in when the system (Emachine T2984)is booted XP
goes to the drive and won't boot. I have to unplug the drive before
booting. I'm sure that there is a setting somewhere so that I can leave it
plugged in. Daily plugging and unplugging is hard on the connectors.

TIA

It sounds as if you need to change the boot order in the computer's BIOS.

Emachine T2984 is year 2005.

The BIOS might not have the module for USB boot,
as USB booting seemed to start with machines with
USB2 ports, rather than USB1.1. I have a P4
with SDRAM and USB1.1 ports (ICH2), and it
doesn't have USB boot. A later P4, did have USB2 boot.

I couldn't find any really good datadumps on that
model of machine. For example, there's no mention
of what model of Bestec power supply that uses.
(There is one evil Bestec, that when it fails,
it overvolts on +5V and damages a lot of nice
hardware in the machine.) That doesn't imply this
is the root cause of anything, but if the word
"Emachines" comes up, I like to encourage people
to look into that issue "what Bestec is the broken one".
At a minimum, an Emachines owner should have backups
of their hard drive, with the backup image on
external storage, for when that PSU blows. The supply
has a model number printed on the label (visible when
the computer side panel is open).

Perhaps if a self-powered (wall adapter) hub is
used for the drive, that will provide more isolation
and allow boot to finish.

Emachine
|
USB1.1
|
Powered Hub -- wall adapter
| | | |
|
|
External drive

There is one application note from the USB Hub
chip companies, that shows a relay being used
to disconnect "bus" power when the wall adapter
is used. But nobody at retail makes hubs that
way. As a result of this lazy design attitude
(not doing it right), sometimes a hub doesn't
provide the desired degree of power isolation.
(To prevent an external load from influencing
machine operation.)

At least one poster here, had a "backfeed" problem,
where an external USB hub actually pumped current
backwards into the USB port. This can lead to
flaky behaviors.

Paul