Windows 10 usb drive not accessible on boot but accessible on restart

[delesh]

Windows 10 usb drive not accessible on boot but accessible on restart

 

[Colif]

what are specs of the pc? Is it a brand name or custom?

if brand name, what make/model?

If custom, what motherboard do you have?

 

[delesh]

Sorry, I am a first timer here and have a post that describes the computer which I, mistakenly, thought it was included in the new thread. The computer is a Dell XPS 8900 with an SSD boot drive, two internal HDs, and a Seagate usb external backup drive. The latter is what is inaccessible on boot. In the BIOS, SATA is set to Intel's RAID which includes AHCI. I tested the usb cable; it is fine.

 

[Colif]

oh okay, so its an external hdd?? I thought it was a USB flash drive.

so it doesn't show up in the PC unless you restart?

If you trying to boot from it you may need to look at this: http://superuser.com/questions/982577/how-to-run-windows-10-from-an-external-hard-drive

 

[delesh]

I am not trying to boot from it. It is a backup drive. It shows up in File Explorer, but the folders are not accessible.

 

[Colif]

Google is not help sometimes, search for inaccessible and everything is boot devices. Its odd that it works after a restart, I cannot think of a reason why its any different to a start up. The process should be the same.

right click "This PC" on desktop
select Manage from list
when window opens, from menu on right, select Storage & then disk management
can you show us a screen shot of what drives looks like when its not working?

 

[delesh]

Sorry to be so long in reply. I have a screenshot of what disk management revealed, but I do not see way to attach it or paste it to this answer. The external backup drive does not show up in the list but does in the boxes. I should say that the computer took several minutes to produce this. It seems to be stuck loading the disk configuration.

 

[Colif]

upload the picture to imgur and share the link here.

I would take the slowness to find drive as a hint, and maybe buy another external drive to replace it. Does drive behave like this on other computers?

 

[delesh]

I have tried other external drives with the same result. What disk management shows is at http://imgur.com/a/R0UJS. I have found that occasionally I can boot and get to the drive. It feels like a timing issue of some kind. Thanks for your help.

 

[Colif]

Go here and see what drivers it offers: http://www.dell.com/support/home/au/en/audhs1/product-support/product/xps-8900-desktop/drivers/advanced

it sounds like a driver is out of date if it happens with other drives too.

 

[delesh]

When I try to update my drives, I consistently get a message that I have the most up-to-date drivers.

 

[Colif]

i assume you trying different USB slots to connect drive?

running out of guesses.

try turning off fast start up and see if it makes any difference: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html

 

[delesh]

Tried both of these. Switching usb ports without restarting allows access but turning off computer reproduces problem when it is turned out.

 

[Colif]

With fast start up off the PC should be turning off when you shut it down.
Normal windows shutdown is actually a hybred hibernate so its really just sleeping, whereas turning off fast startup turns it off completely.
With fast start up on, the only time PC actually turns off is a reset, but you say changing fast start up doesn't make any difference.

right click start button
choose device manager
does the external drive show under disk drives? it may be somewhere else, I don't have one to check
once you find it, right click description
choose properties
click power management tab
untick allow computer to turn off hdd to save power

this may not help but I am just curious why its doing this if its all up to date

 

[Colif]

One other thought, was this a fresh install of win 10 or an upgrade? Its possible a fresh install will fix this as upgrades can have weird problems. Its clearly something on your PC but as drivers are up to date, I cannot think of what.

 

[delesh]

This is a six months old Dell that came with W10 installed. It has had normal updates, all of which have occurred without incident. The external drive does show but there is no Power Management option under Properties. I do not see any way to turn off the drive. In the Control Panel under Power Management, there is an option to selectively suspend usb drives, but this does not turn off the drive. (I have High Performance mode selected under Power Management.) Thanks again for offering your help with this.

 

[Colif]

do Seagate drivers have management software? I know the WD external drives do, just wonder if its that causing problems. I will have to ask elsewhere to figure this out.

 

[delesh]

Seagate apparently uses Microsoft drivers. I searched the Seagate site for drivers and could not fine any.

 

[Colif]

I was going to correct that, I meant Drives. WD software comes with a backup utility that also manages drives, I thought Seagate might have been same.

 

[delesh]

Seagate does come with a backup utility which I ultimately found poorly designed. The same problem occurred with it. I tried Seagate support thinking that its software was the problem, and they worked with me, eventually coming to the conclusion that it wasn't their software. But I learned that the things about their software I did not like were design issues. I uninstalled it and switched to memeo.

 

[Colif]

same model Dell, same problem : http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/certain-external-hard-drives-not-working.197409/

possibly related: http://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/dell-xps-usb-3-0-issues-524465/
this may help too: http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/SLN155163/en?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04

You may want to contact Dell.

 

[BadActor]

If it's a backup drive and your using some sort of backup software, you might have the service on it set up for delayed start which could explain why it's unavailable initially.

 

[delesh]

Would that it were true. Memeo has no such option.