Cannot boot when external hard drive is connected.

Hello everyone!
I got a brand new Macbook Pro w/ Retina 13" for Christmas today, and I've ran into an issue. I have a Samsung external hard drive with my documents and photographs on (and nothing else), and if I start up my mac with it plugged in, my computer hangs on the black screen (no Apple logo). If I leave it for 5 minutes, it eventually works. Also, shutdown is very slow as well. I've tried booting without it plugged in, and it works perfectly. I've ran the disk utility on it, and it reports no problem.
My hard drive's format is in ExFAT (previous Windows 7 user).
Booting in verbose mode doesn't work either, as no text shows up.
Could someone please tell me how to boot my mac quickly without having to disconnect the external hard drive every time?
Thanks.

KaiSilverthorne wrote:
Hi CellarDwellr,
My Samsung HDD uses power from the Mac (and I didn't have the mac plugged in when tried). I am going to reformat my external HDD to see if that helps (it's in ExFAT), as I need to in order to use it for Time Machine backups.
I'll let you know if anything works.
Thanks,
Kai
I see. Well, yeah, in order to use it with Time Machine, format it to Mac os Extended (Journaled)

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