I have just added an 80GB External HD - This works fine, except on closing down, and subsequent restarting - The PC reports there is an error reading a drive and prompts to Ctrl,Alt Del (and then cycles). On removing the usb cable to the new drive all is well again and the PC starts normally. I then have to reinsert the usb cable to access the drive. Can anyone help with this? I would like to leave the new drive connected permanetly and just access it as necessary - rather than keep dis/re- connecting. Please Help!

What is your BOOT priority sequence in BIOS?

Andy, don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I have a similar problem and I have given up looking for an answer. I suspect that it's just a USB quirk with some hard drives/motherboards.

Are you using the external drive to boot the computer, or does it have an OS installed? If it's just a data drive, are you connecting directly to the computer or via a USB hub? I wonder if it's a windows XP bug which fails to integrate the external HD happily into your OS. the extra USB connection is just too demanding for the small brain that Windows XP has. The same problem happens with my scanner from time to time. Reinstalling the software onto a different scratch and save volume made some difference there. Of course with an external HD, this isn't possible. But reinstalling the driver or reconfiguring the Disk Utilities may make a difference..

I think it was the BIos setup - There was a setting there which allowed boot up from USB. I have disabled this and now the PC starts up normally. The only thing is sometimes it automatically see the ext. HD, and other times not! But this is better than not booting up at all. Hey Ho! and Thanks