The PC fails to start even when a portable hard drive is connected.
The PC fails to start even when a portable hard drive is connected.
I connected my portable harddisk and the PC BIOS displayed "Loading USB devices..." but remained stuck. Removing the disk and restarting resolved the problem. This occurred with other portable drives as well, including my old USB hub, which only worked after unplugging it.
Check your BIOS settings for the boot sequence. Ensure that if a USB drive is listed first, it automatically attempts to boot from it upon connection.
Check BIOS settings to turn off USB devices from the Boot Order. If that fails or your system restricts it, try removing the active flag from the relevant partition. For Windows users, use DiskPart to list disks, select the USB drive, and set its status to inactive.