WD Black D10 8TB boot issues

My PC will not boot with the drive attached. I have an MSI 990fxa gaming MB using Windows 10. I have been all over trying to figure out what is going on, but none of the suggestions I’ve come across are working.
When I attempt to boot with the drive attached, it almost immediately hangs/freezes with a 9c code in the corner of the display.
I have made changes in the BIOS to ensure that the drive is not being seen as a boot drive. I’ve tried disabling the Legacy USB function. I have updated to the most recent USB drivers I can find for this older MB. I have tried turning off fast start-up in Windows.
Another ideas? I don’t want to be stuck having to plug and unplug this drive. I had an older My Book attached to this PC at one time that gave me no issues with booting. I’m no longer using that drive.
Thanks in advance…

(Edit)…Well, think the issue is moot. I didn’t want to, as I had already put data on the drive, but I went ahead and changed the file system from exFAT to NTFS. The PC will now boot with the drive attached. Guess my PC is a bigot…