when my western digital mybook 3TB (WDBACW0030HBK-EESN) is (directly) connected to the computer’s usb port, the booting procedure hangs on the windows splash screen.
the bios boot-up sequence is correct, after all the booting does get past the bios boot-up, reads the MBR, and then proceeds to loading the OS. it is there where the booting process gets stuck. (perhaps more precisely, it hangs while loading the OS. the OS loads normally with the drive unplugged.)
furthermore, in windows (when booted into it whilst the drive was unplugged), the drive seems to take a couple dozen seconds to appear among other drives present on the system; also, it then takes unusually long for the drive to respond after having been inactive. (by the way, i have disabled all the ‘power off usb port to save power’-options under windows>devices>system.)
i am using windows 7 (x64) on an intel core2quad system.
i have the latest windows SP installed. i have also installed the respective WD (SES) driver, as well as the latest firmware. i do not have (and never have in the past) installed the smartware software after reading the reviews and anecdotal stories.
I have the exact same problem. Has nothing to do with boot order, it is already booting from the system disk. It just hangs on the spash screen or the blank screen inbetween spash and login screen. Unplugging the drive immediately results in resuming boot. Does it on 3 of the PCs I have with win 7 x64. Seems to be an issue with these drives (based on a search of this board)
I was having the same problem with My Book Essential 3TB USB 3.0 that I recently purchased from Amazon for $135. If I powered down with the Western Digital external 3TB attached via USB3 cable the laptop would shut down out of Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 64bit but after the screen would go black the computer would continue to run. When I booted up with it connected, again it would go to a black screen and stay there, never getting to the Windows startup screen. Either way it would hang up on a black screen and stay there.
In an attempt to correct this annoying problem I first updated the WD hard drive firmware from V1.016 to V1.019. I then updated the USB 3.0 Controller, the the newest version, on my Dell Inspiron N7110 laptop. Neither prevented my laptop from hanging either during power down or boot up.
I then went into the Phoenix SecureCore Tiano BIOS setup screen and went to the advanced tab and disabled “USB Emulation”. After saving the configuration and rebooting with the 3TB hard drive attached via USB3 cable the laptop booted up correctly into Windows. The problem with hanging up on shutdown also disappeared. The Help Screen within BIOS for “USB Emulation” states:
USB Emulation
This field defines how the BIOS, in the absence of a USB-aware operating system, handles USB devices. USB emulation is always enabled during POST.
Disabled = USB emulation is on until control is passed to the operating system. Note: you cannot boot any type of USB device (floppy, HDD, or memory key) when this field is off.
