Broken External Hard Drive Help

I have a seagate barracuda 7200.12 500 gb external hard drive. When i plug it into the computer it registers in the task bar as usb device connected, but doesnt auto run. When i go to open my computer the computer freezes untill i disconnect the external hard drive. Is there any way to repair this or will i have to send it off?

 

Greetings, Tom_Machines.

A few quick questions:

Have you tried plugging in the external, rebooting, and then seeing if it's recognized?

Does the machine freeze in Safe Mode with the external plugged in?

Have you looked in your machine's BIOS to see if there are any USB settings you can adjust, especially 'Legacy' settings?

Do other USB devices function properly?

And, is there a mismatch going on between USB protocols (ie: USB 1.0 vs. USB 2.0)?

 

Greetings Caliban,

When i plug in the external and then reboot, my computer freezes at the reboot, it just sits there idle untill i disconnect the external and then it boots up as normal.
I dont think its a usb problem, i have no problems with any other functions (mouse etc) and i have downloaded the latest usb driver for the external.

 

That ain't good.

Got another machine you can plug the external into, see if the problem's with your computer or with the external?

 

And, did the external work and then quit, or did the freeze happen out of the box?

 

are you using a power brick to power it or is it usb powered?

 

It doesnt work on any other machines and wheni plug it in it freezes straight away.

It is powered by a power pack / cable not usb

 

Do you know whee to find legacy usb in bios? I have looked but cant find it. I have windows vista

 

Hi

Your version of Windows is irrelevant to the BIOS. BIOS settings are entered before the computer starts Windows (usually when you FIRST turn the computer on, it will say Press *key* to enter Setup... doesn't last long!). Common keys to enter setup are F2, F10, DEL, and others.

Just don't go changing too much in the BIOS if you don't know what you're changing. Stick to strictly disabling the support for legacy USB, and let's hope that works!

 

I can access the bios no problem, but i cant find where legacy usb is? It has the booting order for hdd etc but doesnt mention legacy usb anywhere

 

Your machine's BIOS may not necessarily have legacy USB settings.

To repeat: