Doesn’t like external FAT32 HDD

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I have a FAT32 HDD that I occasionally use to transfer files between machines. I left it plugged in to a USB2 port and rebooted my computer. Unfortunately it never booted. I unplugged the drive, and tried again and it booted. So I went into the BIOS/EUFI and disabled boot from everything except the system HDD. Re-Booted normally. I reconnected the FAT32 drive and rebooted, but it didn’t boot – again. Other USB drives don’t have an issue, but they’re NTFS drives. I reformatted the FAT32 drive to NTFS and it boots just fine.

What is it about USB FAT32 HDDs that cause Windoze to not boot?

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Is it possible that you have your BIOS set to boot from USB before booting from the hard drive?

Boon Tee
PowerBiz Solutions

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BIOS is set to ignore everything except the HDD. Ignore USB, Ignore optical drive, ignore LAN boot.

There’s something about having a USB external HDD formatted as FAT32 connected that messes things up. The same drive formatted as NTFS is fine.

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Have you tried this with another USB HDD, or just the one you mentioned?

What about USB flash drives plugged in (which are usually formatted as FAT32)?

From an old thread, https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/cant-boot-with-external-hard-drive-connected/4aadad52-6519-4c1c-89a4-a1d88c7ed84b?messageId=a4dd8c4c-1809-4e92-a583-79de9ddf003a&page=2

• Method 4 – Delete Hidden Files
• Method 5 – Format External HD

Boon Tee
PowerBiz Solutions

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That link you provided describes my problem accurately, except I have a Dell Optiplex 9010 with the latest BIOS A30.

Now that you mention it, yes it also happens with a flash drive if it’s not formatted as NTFS, although I haven’t used one for a while. NTFS destroys any hope of true portability.

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USB devices preventing boot is an old problem I suspect is just down to bad USB design. All you can do is remove the device to boot or replace the problematic device.

cheers, Paul

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what kind of external FAT32 HDD drive do you have, DaveH52?

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It was a WD 6T drive, but now it’s NTFS and works normally.

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Your PC was reading the disk and being confused by it.
Change back to FAT32 format to see if it’s still an issue. If not, the disk may have been created to be bootable last time.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

USB devices preventing boot is an old problem I suspect is just down to bad USB design.

Or otherwise broken USB parts.

I’ve got one USB mouse that seems to prevent a sizable percentage of computers from booting if it’s attached… and causes crashes and the like in others.

To be more specific, it’s in my electronics disposal bin, which is currently about half full.

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I put my removable drives in enclosures with ON-OFF switches (and fans) so when I’m not using the drives, they’re off and there’s no more problem.

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