external hard drive slows computer?

I recently bought a WD MyBook Essential 500 GB for my Dell E1705. Now, whenever it's plugged in, booting my computer takes a lot longer than it used to--now it takes 2-3 minutes when it used to take a little less than one minute.

I can see the indicator on the MyBook flashing a lot during start up, so is that what's slowing it down? I've tried unplugging it before restarting and the boot time went back down to <1 minute.

I have another external hard drive that is 320 GB but that was just an enclosure and a hard drive I had from before. That one never slowed the computer down during startup.

(I know I seem like I'm complaining about nothing but it's really bothering me a lot... )

 

hm, i dont know a great deal about using external HDD's, but my guess would be its looking for something to boot off from in that external hard drive, which is why its taking so long.

Id check your BIOS settings. You probably have your boot device priority set to check removable storage before the Internal Hard drive

and yah that would annoy me as well, an additional 2-3 minutes at a startup screen.... ugh

 

I think that Poseign is absolutely right. Do what he said, open your BIOS and see if the External HDD is on the Boot Devices list. If it is remove it.

 

Alternatively unplug it before you shut down and plug it back in after you start up? I don't leave mine plugged in unless I'm using it.

 

I've thought about the BIOS thing too. I have it set to check CD/DVD first, then internal, then network, then external, but it still boots slowly.

Also, the notification light doesn't just blink during the boot screen (though the number of bar thingies almost doubles... i can't help but to count as they whiz by). It just slows everything down from logging-in to loading start-up programs... agh!

And I realize I can just turn it off before I turn it off but... I have to reach so far.................
I'm just trying to find a way to fix this without resorting to that, haha.

I'm also using Vista, if that changes anything. Though, again, I have another external that doesn't cause this problem; it's just the MyBook.

 

It could just be how the MyBook drive responds to USB discovery inquiries. If either device does something unexpected by the other, either it or the computer could just be getting confused until further drivers are loaded when you boot into Windows. Best advice is to flash the BIOS to the latest version, and if that doesn't fix it, turn the drive off when you're booting it up.

 

Not sure about what it might say in the BIOS, but it is actually not possible to boot off an external HD, it just won't work.

What I would do is try plugging it in once the laptop is fired up. Does it lag or hold up the computer for a while?

 

Nah, it works fine if I just plug it in after the laptop's booted up. I was just looking for a way to avoid the step of tuning off the hard-drives every time I restarted.

Also, I have the latest BIOS update. I guess the MyBook and my computer just clash, like Pitabred said.