After external USB drive - server will not start

I got an external USB drive to hook up to the Sentinel-with the hope of using it for backing it up.

Aside from learning that the process does not really work smoothly, or as advertised, the Sentinel will not boot with the external drive hooked up to it.

It will boot no problem if I disconnect the drive, but if the server needs to restart - it will just hang, until I disconnect the external drive.

I’m still trying to find a proper use for this thing-but definitely feel like I went the wrong wroute, and would have been better off with a NAS device…

You are adressing two issues.  One, the external drive problem, and two the proper use.  Just out of curiosity, why do you feel you went wrong with the Sentinel?  What were you trying to accomplish?

You are right, sorry for the confusing post. I should address one issue at a time. I’ll explain what I’m trying to do -

I want to use the Sentinel primarily as a file server, that can be accessed from any computer on my network (additionally over the internet is possible). As this machine will basically have all my Data on it, I want to have another drive back it up.

I attached an external drive to accomplish that. Unfortunately if the Sentinel ever needs to reboot - it gets stuck, and I have to unplug the external drive, than plug it back in after the Sentinel finishes booting. I don’t think I should have to do that.

You need to disable the autorun on the external drive to prevent it from trying to boot. Best would be to reformat the external drive entirely using NTFS and make sure you do not check the box for making the drive bootable.

Hi Mr Windows - when I connect this drive, the external drive is re-formatted by the Sentinel device. I’ll try again, and see if their was an option about making the drive bootable.

Thanks for the tip.