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    Disable reading of external drive at startup?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by macdaddy8000, Jan 15, 2017.

  1. macdaddy8000

    macdaddy8000 Notebook Consultant

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    Is it possible to disable the reading of external drives connected to usb under startup, when i power on my M18X R1 with my 3TB USB 3.0 external HDD connected it takes forever to get into windows, is it possible to disable the external HDD reading in in BIOS?
     
  2. Porter

    Porter Notebook Virtuoso

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    To my knowledge no. I've seen this on many different laptops/brands/models too, and have just concluded I need to disconnect it when not needed and leave it off until the next boot.

    A couple things that may help. If your drive is AC powered you may be able to turn it off if it has a power button, or use a power strip to turn it off. If it is USB powered you can get a USB hub with a switch on it to turn it off when not needed. That way you don't wear out a USB port plugging it in so many times.
     
  3. TBoneSan

    TBoneSan Laptop Fiend

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    Try going into the BIOS and disabling it as a boot option. Or make it a boot option after your OS drive.