[Mr M]

All of a sudden, having my HP external drive plugged into my computer freezes the computer. It will stop a boot up, or freeze a program from running. This happens when I plug it into either of 2 Different Windows XP computers! When I unplug it, all works. The only two things I was doing prior to this happening was updating my Norton Virus definitions and I also plugged in my GPS for the first time to get downloads. Any ideas.

 

[JohnWill]

Well, if it happens on multiple computers, I'd be looking at a problem with the external hard disk. It's odd that it freezes the computer, that's not normal. On one of the systems, give this a try and see if the USB drive works again.

First step, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Create a restore point and name it something like "Before USB Fix". This is to bail you out if something goes wrong during the following process and makes things worse.

Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG

-------------------------- Use text after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"

-------------------------- Use text before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.

When this is done, reboot TWICE.

Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.

NOTE: If you have a USB keyboard and/or mouse, you'll have to modify the instructions and leave enough parts for those to function. I don't have one yet, so I haven't had time to modify the instructions.

 

[Mr M]

Well, if it happens on multiple computers, I'd be looking at a problem with the external hard disk. It's odd that it freezes the computer, that's not normal. On one of the systems, give this a try and see if the USB drive works again.

First step, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Create a restore point and name it something like "Before USB Fix". This is to bail you out if something goes wrong during the following process and makes things worse.

Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG

-------------------------- Use text after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"

-------------------------- Use text before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.

When this is done, reboot TWICE.

Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.

NOTE: If you have a USB keyboard and/or mouse, you'll have to modify the instructions and leave enough parts for those to function. I don't have one yet, so I haven't had time to modify the instructions.

I don't understand the concepts behind your instruction, so, for now, I need something easier. For what it's worth, under "disk drives", I show "HP 8200 USB Drive". Unfortunately, my HP 8200 is a printer! It ALSO appears under "Printers and Faxes". I have 3 HP devices, i.e., A printer, scanner and external drive. I think maybe my HP drivers crashed into each other so I uninstalled all three. I no longer show "HP 8200 USB Drive" as I did before, and when I turn on the HP drive, the system freezes. As soon as I unplug the usb plug for the drive, or power the drive off, the system unfreezes. What happened to this drive all of a sudden?

 

[JohnWill]

The "concept" behind my procedure is to flush out the stored parameters for USB devices and let Windows rebuild them. It has worked many times, though obviously not all the time.

Try the drive in another system, if it works normally, I'll again recommend my procedure. If you don't want to do that, I guess I'll let someone else recommend a solution.

 

[Mr M]

I tried your procedure on the older of the two computers to no avail. In time, I realized that the drive wasn't "freezing" the systems but making them very, very, VERY slow. Once I realized that, I was able to access the problem drive (by waiting it out). I was even able to access the data on this drive. Fom there, I did a CHKDSK (also by waiting forever for each step). This solved the problem. I believe the problem was caused by my plugging my GPS into the computer the drive was on. Could this have corrupted files on the drive? My next step would have been to try to repartition. I know formatting a drive erases data. Will repartitioning a drive do the same?

Thanks for your help.

 

[JohnWill]

I can't imagine how plugging the GPS in caused a problem on the hard disk. I have a ton of USB devices connected to my system, and they've yet to corrupt any of the disks.