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    Boot Dell XPS 15 with external drives

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Pratt, Jul 20, 2011.

  1. Pratt

    Pratt Newbie

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    I have two external hard drives, for backup, attached via usb to my XPS 15. When I boot the computer, it hangs for some time. I have to press F12 and select Hard drive.

    In the setup (F2) I see the boot sequence is first removable drive, then hard drive. Should I reverse this to solve the problem? Is this advisable? Is the alternative to always unplug the external drives before booting? Or is there another solution?
     
    Pratt, Jul 20, 2011
    #1
  2. synce

    synce Notebook Consultant

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    I had the same problem back when I was still using pre-built PCs and external drives. The solution was to keep them unplugged unless it was time for a backup.
     
    synce, Jul 20, 2011
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  3. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    I think reversing the drives in BIOS should solve the problem. I'd say it's still nonetheless a good idea to keep the external drives unplugged at boot.
     
    Commander Wolf, Jul 20, 2011
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  4. Pratt

    Pratt Newbie

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    Many thanks for the advice. I always found it convenient, on my desktop pc, to keep external drives plugged in, always ready for a quick backup. I'm a little leery of changing the boot sequence, at least until I'm comfortable with the laptop, so I'll get used to keeping them unplugged and backing up less frequently. The advantage is it frees up the usb ports for other toys!
     
    Pratt, Jul 20, 2011
    #4