External HDD problems UPDATED

[wiltshirejohn]

Follow up to:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,28570.0.html

I followed the suggestions put forward in the previous discussion going as far as completely removing the Comodo firewall as suggested by Armadillo. Still no joy!

Due to lack of time I sort of ignored the problem hoping it would go away.  Well it did !  I've recently applied Redmond's latest batch of sticking plasters and at the same time updated to the latest version of my anti-virus (ESET NOD32).

Now, both disk drives funtion normally. Unfortunately I cannot pin the blame on either Redmond or ESET.  I would suspect the latter as there would have been much more noise if Windoze  was causing such a problem.

Regards to all - wiltshirejohn

[Lance]

Glad the problem has gone away! 

[armadillo]

Follow up to:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,28570.0.html

... and at the same time updated to the latest version of my anti-virus (ESET NOD32).

Now, both disk drives funtion normally. Unfortunately I cannot pin the blame on either Redmond or ESET.  I would suspect the latter as there would have been much more noise if Windoze  was causing such a problem.

Regards to all - wiltshirejohn

Thanks for updating. If you had replied earlier, I would have asked you if you had NOD32. You never mentioned that before, only Comodo. I suggested it would be firewall or other antimalware. In fact, there was a bug in NOD32 and I fell prey to it myself, getting similar symptoms to you but my freezes were intermittent so I could usually use my external HDDs without a problem - but sometimes it would feeze the PC like yours did all the time. I was even one of the folk who supplied memory dumps to ESET!

There is a thread about it on the Wilders NOD32 forum:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=309335
It is a 9 page thread which I joined in at the start of page 9. All other posters got the freeze every time.
Because mine were intermittent, it was a while before I even suspected NOD32.
They were alerted to the problem in October 2011 and it took till May 2012 to produce a fix.
The fix has worked for me and I have had no freezes since then.
One or two people still get freezes and there is still some incompatibility between NOD32 and Outpost Firewall and also with MalwareBytes.

[wiltshirejohn]

There is a thread about it on the Wilders NOD32 forum:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=309335

Wow! that's a heap of correspondence.  Thanks for that link Armadillo. Most useful.

As I said earlier, my USB HDDs are now working normally - almost!!

My normal method of working is to use the hibernate facility at the end of the day and once a week do a full shutdown.    When re-starting from hibernation - no problem but from a 'cold' start, if the USB HDDs are plugged in, then the system hangs in the middle of the boot sequence.

Solution: unplug/turn off the little bu**ers until the boot sequence is complete then re-attach.  Not elegant but it works.

          Regards to all - wiltshirejohn.

[Simon]

That happens with mine too, John.  My external drives are all just for backups, though, so I only power them on when needed. 

[armadillo]

Wow! that's a heap of correspondence.  Thanks for that link Armadillo. Most useful.

It's funny how, at the start of the correspondence, ESET don't think it's their problem at all and then, as it dawns, there is much messing around trying to identify the situation in which the problem occurs. Eventually, ESET make some changes and voila - 6 months later, we have a fix! They are still not accepting any responsibility for conflicts with "faulty" 3rd party drivers that did not conflict with year-old versions of NOD32.

As I said earlier, my USB HDDs are now working normally - almost!!

My normal method of working is to use the hibernate facility at the end of the day and once a week do a full shutdown.    When re-starting from hibernation - no problem but from a 'cold' start, if the USB HDDs are plugged in, then the system hangs in the middle of the boot sequence.

Solution: unplug/turn off the little bu**ers until the boot sequence is complete then re-attach.  Not elegant but it works.

On my system, that has always been "normal" behaviour, even before I had NOD32. It is odd how some people in the Wilders thread were offering a workaround for the  NOD32 bug by actually recommending connecting and turning on the external drive before booting Windows. It might work for those people. But my system has always done what yours does - fails to boot if an external is connected up and powered on before starting to boot.

I think this behaviour is actually a property of the BIOS. If you look in the BIOS, you will see bunch of settings to do with USB, legacy USB and detecting and waiting for external USB drives. I am not sure if messing around with them would allow the PC to boot with an external already in place but I would rather not try.

Word of warning. The last time I tried unplugging an external USB while the computer was in the process of booting, it fried my motherboard. I managed to get an identical used motherboard and rebuild the PC but it is not a route I would recommend!