PC trying to boot from external drive?

klemming

I bought a new external drive to backup all my music files. Plug it in, copy files, everything's fine.
Then the next time I tried to turn my PC on, it just stayed on the boot screen.
I unplugged the drive, and everything works normally.

I assume the PC is trying to use the new external drive to boot from, but I don't know why or how to get it to stop doing it. I already have one other external drive that stays plugged in all the time, and it's never caused problems like this.
Any suggestions?

bowen

External drive might have the partition marked as bootable or something.

Just go into BIOS and change the boot order to boot from the local disk before USB, because unfuckering that stuff is not worth the time.

klemming

I looked that up as a possible cause, but wouldn't that look for any USB drive as a boot source? Like I said, I've had one plugged in for years with no problems.

bowen

If there's no bootable partition it wouldn't cause issues as most USB drives don't have them. It really depends on what drive they put inside if it was pre-loaded with bootable stuff or not.

klemming

Okay.
So I looked into it, and the drive has a EFI System Partition on it. Windows won't let me delete it or anything else, so that's handy.
But when I check my BIOS, I'm apparently running a Legacy boot system rather than an UEFI.

Since the local disc is the top of the boot queue (and I can't even get to my BIOS with the drive plugged in, so I can't shift wherever it appears) I'm guessing this is why everything's fucked?

I know just enough about computers to not want to dick around with my BIOS, what are the odds that changing the boot mode from Legacy to UEFI will screw me over? I'm fine with just returning this drive and getting one without a partition, but if my PC stops being usable I am not going to be happy.

wunderbar

if your computer is currently set to legacy changing to uefi will 100% make your current windows install not bootable.

You absolutely should be able to get into the bios with the external drive plugged in, just start mashing whatever key gets you into the bios as soon as the computer starts to turn on.

klemming

I am, it just doesn't work. I know what key I'm using, the only difference is if the drive is plugged in or not.
At this point getting a different usb drive sounds like the least stupid option.

tsmvengy

Are the files you copied still on your computer? Re-format the whole external drive, getting rid of the boot partition.

klemming

I tried formatting it, the partition's still there.
This was NTFS, Quick Format. (NTFS because everything else I have seems to use it, quick format because trying it without took about ten minutes before the first pixel of the progress bar was visible, and I only have about six hours to work on this before I have to shut it off)
Would another setting work?

I'm going to try taking it in to work and see if my work computer can delete the partition. That one's way newer, so it should be using UEFI, if that'll make any difference.
Failing that, I'll just return it and try a different one.

Zxerol

Reformatting isn't going to get rid partitions, you'll have to open up a partition editor and kill it (e.g. Disk Management snap-in Windows -- right click on Start).

klemming

Zxerol wrote: »

Reformatting isn't going to get rid partitions, you'll have to open up a partition editor and kill it (e.g. Disk Management snap-in Windows -- right click on Start).

Any suggestions for killing immortal partitions?

bowen

You probably won't be able to in windows. You can try gparted.

This is why the simplest solution is just changing the boot order and slamming F9 or whatever your BIOS uses if you ever need to boot from USB.

klemming

Yeah, but I can't find a way to change the boot order if I can't get to my bios with the drive plugged in.
And when I go in without it plugged in my local drive is right at the top anyway.
Screw it, I'm just gonna return the thing.

klemming

Update: Finally found a guide that told me to do something my computer would let me do, which seems to have worked: http://www.winability.com/delete-protected-efi-disk-partition/

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm sure the BIOS thing would have worked if I could have figured it out, but I only know enough about this stuff to know I shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere near the thing.

bowen

Ah yeah getting into EFI BIOS can be a pain in the ass.

Mugsley

For any future drive management work, I highly recommend Macrium Reflect. It's got an easy to understand UI, works solid, and it's free.