How to fix computer freeze with external USB drive attached

Hi, My computer has frozen a few times lately when my external drive was hooked in, mostly to upload music to Itunes on my MacBook Air. Anyone know what's happening and how to fix it?
Thanks
Peggy ;~)

the image isnt just 1 big file
its got a bunch of files
som .ini configuration files here and there
the trick is to find which files controls the directory to start loading from
and change the waiting for f:
to waiting for anything else
external ODD, flash drive, or anything other than the internal ODD cuz its broken
the files on the disc are
recovery disc+
.....boot+
..............fonts
..............bcd
..............boot.sdi
...................eftsboot.exe
......efi+
.................microsoft+
...................................boot+
..............................................font s
.................................................. ......bcd
.....HDDPREP+
............................boot
............................sources
............................bootmgr
......HTMPREP+
...........................readme.html
...........................toshiba.jpg
......sources+
.......................boot.wmi
.......tools+
..................crtdll.dll
...................imagex.exe
...................version.txt
...................vRecoFastCRC.exe
...................XcludeCRC.ini
...................zlibwapi.dll
....06466XR1.CRC
....06466XSP.SWM
....06466XSP2.SWM
....06466XSP3.SWM
....06466XSP4.SWM
....06466XSP5.SWM
....06466XV1.CRC
....bootmgr
....Setenv.ini
im know im not super computer expert but as far as my knowledge goes its probably 1 of thos xxx.ini files cuz usually contain settings and stuff like that
they are easy to open with notepad and easy to just change one of them and burn a new disc with the corrected file
i just need someone to help me figure out which one to change and what to change it to the rest is easy

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FSCK and reboot issues with external USB drive

I'm having an issue with an external USB hard drive I'm using. I've always had issues with this drive cause my reboot to "freeze" when it's mounted. Basically the system message with be sent out, but it doesn't actually proceed with the reboot. No switch to init 6 or anything, but the shutdown process is still active. I can continue to use the computer as usual, but I can't cancel the existing shutdown or try to enter init level 6 by hand. So I just got around this by unmounting the drive before I shutdown. However, lately when I try to unmount the drive I get an error saying that the drive is in use and I should check to see what processes are using it by runing lsof or fuser.
Yesterday I tried copying dsome files from the drive but there wasn't and activity on the drive. cp didn't report any errors though, it just sat there and did nothing. I tried running fsck on the drive, but didn't get much farther. I'll see some activity on the drive for about a second, then all activity stops and fsck just sits there. When I try to kill fsck, it won't. Even with a kill -9.
I'm really confused as to what is going on. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone have any ideas what could be causing all this or what I can do to stop this? Thanks in advance!
David
[email protected]

Press the reset button on the device. It is located between the USB and power ports. Make sure to take-out the external USB drive before you reset the device. Or you can also restore the defaults by accessing the Administration tab > Factory Defaults sub-tab in the router’s web-based setup page. Check out this link for the set up; http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.aspx?vw=1&docid=32cffead811249aea7e9fc6730bf59ad_KB25681_EN_v1.xml...

How do user accounts function with external hard drives?

I realized in the help menu that it implies that users can be setup with AEBS and external drives... and with the internal drive of a TC. Since I only have a TC, the thing I noticed is that when I setup a User, it seems to exist on the internal drive. It is not obvious to me that the external drive also has a user folder... it may not. The instructions are very much NOT specific... does anyone have any idea how this really works internally in the TC... and how does that compare to an AEBS with two USB drives?
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This is the only pertinent information in the pdf manual.
58 Chapter 3 AirPort Network Designs
To share a USB hard disk on you network:
1 Plug the hard disk into the USB port on the back of the base station.
2 Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a Mac, or
in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a Windows computer.
3 Select your base station, and then choose Manual Setup from the Base Station menu,
or double-click the base station to open its configuration in a separate window. Enter
the base station password if necessary.
4 Click the Disks button, and then click File Sharing.
5 Choose “With a disk password,” or “With base station password” if you want to secure
the shared disk with a password, or choose “With accounts” if you want to secure the
disk using accounts.
Â If you choose to use accounts, click Configure Accounts, click the Add button, and
then enter a name and password for each user that will access the disk.
6 Choose “Not allowed,” “Read only,” or “Read and write” to assign guest access to the
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[SOLVED] Problem with external USB drive started yesterday

My system freezes for about 65 seconds at the login screen. After 65 seconds, I can login and everything is normal afterwards.
I discovered that I can eliminate the freeze by disconnecting the external USB drive from the PC. Here are the error messages from kernel.log when the drive is connected:
Oct 15 23:10:14 localhost kernel: [ 17.035091] usb 1-1.3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
Oct 15 23:10:29 localhost kernel: [ 32.155955] usb 1-1.3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
Oct 15 23:10:29 localhost kernel: [ 32.325394] usb 1-1.3: new high speed USB device number 4 using ehci_hcd
Oct 15 23:10:31 localhost kernel: [ 34.045126] MediaState is connected
There is supposed to be a kernel boot option (irqpoll) to prevent this from occurring. However, that option seems to no longer work for kernels after 2.6.39. If I try using it with Arch, the system will not boot, saying all the CPU's failed.
I also don't understand why this just started happening yesterday, as the USB drive has been connected to the PC longer than I've been using Arch. Also, my kernel has not been updated since I installed Arch on Oct 8.
Does anyone know another fix or workaround for this problem?
Thanks,
Tim
Last edited by ratcheer (2011-10-17 01:30:08)

Problem solved
I feel stupid, but I also feel better. I turned off the PC, disconnected the power from the USB drive for about 15 seconds, reconnected the power, rebooted, removed the irqpoll kernel option, and Ubuntu started, perfectly. I need to learn that the USB drive just goes freaky sometimes and remember to do this. But, this is only the second time I've had to do this in months of use.
Tim

Single-user mode: How to mount and access an external USB drive?

My MacBook Pro HD is acting up. Cannot boot normally or into "safe mode". Cannot reinstall OS without wiping out the HD. Need to recover some critical files but DiskUtil First Aid and Restore options cannot successfully complete. Problem traced down to "invalid node structure" which means I either have a hardware problem or my filesystem partition directory structure is corrupted. I need to recover some files that are not backed up (timin issue with my regular backup process).
I can boot into single-user mode, mount the root file system (/sbin/mount -uw /) and can see/navigate the rot filesystem structure via good UNIX command line. Here's what I would like to do (in single-user mode):
1. Mount an external USB drive (250 GB already formatted as Mac OS X Extended)
2. Copy various files and/or directories from my HD to the external USB drive (UNIX cp command)
I realize I could go spend $$ for the Disk Warrior or Data Rescue products (or something similar) that SHOULD help me recover my HD or files, but it seems silly to do this when I can see, touch and taste them from within single-user mode....
Comments? Suggestions?
TIA --
Trent
P.S. Once I've recovered my files, I'll try to reformat the HD and then reinstall the OS. And THEN go have Apple look at my machine (thank goodness for AppleCare coverage)!

Resolution:
1) Boot system in single-user mode (SUM) with external HD attached.
2) Execute the following UNIX CLI commands once SUM boot process is completed:
# fsck -fy
# mount -uw /
# mkdir /Volumes/target_directory
# mount -t hfs -w /dev/diskXXX /Volumes/target_directory
# cp -RXv /source_directory /Volumes/target_directory
Where XXX is the device-level name for your external HD's data partition. In my case this was /dev/disk1s2. It may take some experimentation to identify this device name if your system has multiple HD's.
3) Verify contents were successfully copied onto the /Volumes/target_directory.
Comments and observations:
- Do NOT use "/" as your source directory - cp will make a second (redundant) copy of /volumes/target_directory
- I was able to successfully copy ALL files off my HD despite the fsck command's "invalid node structure" error message with this simple procedure. YMMV, depending on the state of your HD.
- The repeated disk0s2: I/O error warnings displayed during the SUM boot process did not seem to have a negative effect on this procedure. I also received this same error warning intermittently as I navigated the mounted filesystem did not seem to be a problem, either. Again, YMMV.
Commercial software:
I downloaded ProSoft Engineering's Data Rescue 3 product (trial version) before spending $99 to attempt to recover my "bad" HD's data via mounting to a good system with FW target mode. It could not successfully complete its "QuickScan" process and immediately hung on block 0 of 390M during its "Deep Scan" process. The product did seem to function properly on an operational system. ProSoft's technical support was responsive and helpful but had no answer for my "Deep Scan" error.
I did not attempt to use Alsoft's Disk Warrior 4 product. I could not find any trial software available and was reluctant to spend $100 based upon the mixed reviews and comments on this discussion forum as well as other reviews. Alsoft does claim to address the "invalid node structure" error in their marketing materials. Hindsight being 20/20 - I saved $100 by using this simple procedure.
Final note:
Neither Leopard nor Snow Leopard's installation DVD could recognize the bad internal HD when trying to do a reinstall. While DiskUtil was able to "see" the bad internal drive it immediately failed when I tried to do an "erase and format". Took the system to my local Apple store and the Genius ran a tool called "SMART Utility" from Volitans Software (www.volitans-software.com). SMART utility confirmed that my HD was bad so it was replaced. AppleCare pays for itself (once again!).

How to run windows from an external usb drive

Hi,
I've just install windows using bootcamp. after that i restore that windows installed bootcamp volume to an GUID partitioned external HDD. Now it is shown in startup disc, but when i select that (external HDD) volume it is unable to start.
I don't know what to do? I just want to run windows from an external usb drive like i can run mac osx.
please help. thanks

Windows will not run from an external drive.

Won't boot up with external hard drive attached

Pavillion HPE h8-1360t, AMI 7.15 Bios, Windows 7 Home Premium x64 bit, consistently fails to boot with external USB hard drive attached (WD 500GB MyBook) attached. Have tried disabling the device in BIOS, htting f10 to apply the change and then selecting "save changes and exit", but after shutdown/powerup the BIOS returns to the old setting. Read the posting that states a BIOS upgrade will solve the problem but Support web page shows no BIOS update available. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

2Suntech,
Open up command prompt and run the following command SFC /scannow.
This will scan the system files and correct any errors that it can.
Here is a link to command prompt.
When you go to open command prompt, right click and run as administrator.
If it has not been to long since the problem started, you can run a system restore.
This will take the system back to when everything was working correctly without affecting your personal files.
Here is a link on how to do a restore.
Let me know how everything goes.

How do install Tiger from an external USB drive?

I'm trying to upgrade from 10.2.8 to Tiger. How do I install Tiger from my external USB DVD drive? Tiger only comes on DVD and my G4 only has a CD ROM as an internal drive. Is there a way to boot from an external USB DVD drive?

bamim2,
you obviously just cracked some known hardware restrictions that not even Apple knew how to do: Don't start up from an external USB device.
The procedure you described is the standard procedure for the startup manager. However, as Apple's article explains this does NOT work with USB-devices on PowerPC (G3, G4, G5) based Macs.

Computer change with external hard drive

i have a classic 160 and since day one i have stored my libary on an external hard drive with back up on another. iam about to change computers, does the fact my libary is on an external hard drive make the process easier?
if so how do i go about it? any help would be fantastic

Actually Hudgie, I'm posing another closely related question for you. I read with interest your reply to BuePod. I recently moved and added some new app's to my PC. After re-attaching all of my USB devices, I couldnt' sync my IPOD, so I reset, I downloaded new versions of IPOD and ITUNES software, did a restart, and now I have no music at all on my IPOD, and no playlists in ITUNES. What I do have is this; my ext hard drive (H) has a folder I called "Dave's ITUNES MUSIC LIBRARY" which has all of my actual music files in it. Then I also have the following files/folders on that same external H Drive:
itunes music library.itl
itunes 4 music library.itl
itunes music library.xml
Then in my "C" local drive on my laptop PC the only APPLE related folders/files I have within the "my music" folder are:
ITUNES, which in turn contains:
itunes music
itunes music library.itl
itunes music library.xml
I've made sure that ITUNES preferences is pointed to the H drive, to DAVE'S ITUNES MUSIC LIBRARY. But apparently that may be a mistake. I may have inadvertently deleted a file or folder in my C drive under "my music." But the fact remains that my ITUNES cannot seem to find or connect to my music library on my H drive.
Can you point me in the right direction. Unfortunately, apple support wouldn't even help me as they consider this external hard drive on an XP platform "non standard" and will not even offer advice.
Thanks in advance!

When is Apple going to fix the problem with external hard drive not working on Lion?

As for everyone else external hard drive does not work with Lion.
When will Apple fix this problem. Do they just ignore the customer : (

Copy off all your data off the NTFS formatted drive to another drive
Open Disk Utility in the Applications>Utilities folder
Select your external NTFS drive on the far left, should have the drive makers name, a ID perhaps plus the word "media"
Click the Partition Tab, click the big box and click 1 Partition
If you want a Mac only drive > Option: GUID >format OS X Extended (Journaled)
If you want a Mac/PC drive (for over 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format exFAT
If you want a Mac/PC drive (for the most compatibility with other devices, Win XP, but only under 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format MSDOS (FAT or FAT32)
Give it a name and click Apply.
You can also search Microsoft for a free exFAT download if you have Win XP.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

ITunes prone to freeze with external hard drive?

I have a near 100GB music library (I write music reviews for several publications) and therefore I keep my collection in a Seagate 300GB external harddrive that I connect to my powerbook via firewire. Well, the problem is that iTunes tends to randomly freeze up on me after a while of use. Usually after about half an hour of using iTunes problem-free (sometime sooner, especially if I'm listening to a song and managing my library simultaneously), it stops responding and I have to Force Quit. Moreover, sometime Force Quit won't work and I have to either simply unplug my hard drive (obviously not good) or do a hard shut-down of the computer (also, not good). I don't remember having this problem before I started using my external hard-drive.
Any insight would be GREATLY appreciated.

No answer for you here other than to register my bitter disappointment, first it was 7.x and now it's 7.1 still same problems; spinning beach balls when importing folders not to mention ridiculous gapless slowness and extremely long album art work downloads.
I have a 2TB Terastation over Airport Expresses, it was more than fine on iTunes 6.x. I trashed the plists, trashed iTunes and re-installed, de-clicked gapless off library (too late because you have to select songs first) optimized wireless, localised library (move it locally rather than selecting external) and.. . no improvement.
I find it absolutely amazing that a company that touts digital life hasn't even tested one of it's core software on external/networked drives.

IMAC won't start with external USB drive

I've been running Leopard for a few weeks now and decided to connect an external USB hard drive to use with Time Machine, it did the backup fine and seems to be working fine... however, every time I start my imac in the morning I get a gray screen that just hangs. I have to unplug the USB drive then reboot again.. that salves the problem.. but is annoying to have to do that each time.. I also noticed today that my ipod when plugger in via USB will not mount on the desktop.. I have to unplug the USB hard drive then plug the ipod in again.. that solves the problem..
Anyone have this same issue..??? It seems to be USB related or Time Machine related.. maybe both..
Cheers
D.

The Disks are formatted with Ntfs as i am using Bootcamp with Windows 7. So repairing disks would not work in Mac OSX, and is not needed as the disks are ok. I would be a strange coincidence that both disks would be corrupted at the same Time.
I have tried three different other USB disks in the meantime and the Macbook could Boot up everytime with no problem. I found the answer in another forum. The controllers (USB to SATA) in the enclosures of the disks are not compatible with my Macbook, they are rather cheap WD disks and a lot of other users reported the same problem. ist might be possible to upgrade the firmware, but i will rather look for some other disks and try them first before i buy.

How to reinstall Photoshop CS3 with external hard drive?

I have C3 Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. on my iMac. Is there a way to put it on my external drive and put in back on my iMac? (This is if I have to reinstall the OS.) Would it ask for a serial number again?
Also, is there a way to verify the serial number of the program? I have a number written but I'm not sure if that's it.
Thank you!

An Archive and Install should preserve third party software, but I've heard Adobe can be tricky.
As for putting it on an external and then moving it back, Adobe CS is known to be very fussy about getting moved. It might think you are trying to install it on another computer and prevent you from moving it to the external and then back. But anyway, since it has files all over the place, I don't think it's as simple as moving the application over. You will probably need to do a clone -- a clone will bring everything over -- which might get around the license issue, and then reverse clone from the external back to the Mac. But on the CCC Forum, I have read that some people have had problems cloning Adobe, not sure which version though.
If you have the CS3 Install Disc, then you might just want to de-activate it first and then reinstall once you've done the system reinstall.
One excellent cloning program is Carbon Copy Cloner
http://www.bombich.com/
And, if needed (according to this, you are allowed to install it on two computers, so maybe it isn't necessary to deactivate it first. Then, again by deactivating, you would preserve the option to install it on another computer):
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/07/17/how-to-deactivate-and-reactivate-adobe- photoshop-cs3-to-transfer-or-move-activation-license-key/
Message was edited by: WZZZ

S3270y Slimline won't boot/shutdown with External USB

I have a s3720y that was behaving just fine. It has Windows 7, 4 gb ram etc. I replaced (via image) the hard drive. Nothing else has changed on the machine. After putting in the new drive, the computer wouldn't boot past the HP splash screen. I unplugged the USB devices 1 by 1...when my Seagate external was pulled out it continued to boot. Let it boot, made sure all drivers installed etc and shut it down WITHOUT the external USB drive attached. Booted back up without it attached and it booted just fine and fast.
Plugged in the Seagate, it installed and showed up just fine. Shut down the machine and it just hung at the Windows 7 shutdown screen. Unplugged the external USB drive and it finished shutting down. Plugged the USB external in again powered on and yep it just sat there. I unplugged and yes...it booted.
First I have no idea why the Bios would suddenly decide it didn't like having an external drive attached. The drive that was replaced was a SATA and it was replaced with a SATA (SSD). The bios are version 5.21 and according to the wonderful and overly informative (notice my sarcasim) HP support site there aren't any BIOS available for my version (again I'm running Windows 7 64-bit).
I've run into this in the past but just not out of the blue. I went into BIOS and I don't see any reference to USB support. But the revision on these BIOS are like 2007 it seems. I don't understand how HP doesn't keep BIOS updated for machines that are running a current OS.
Anyway if anyone has any idea, I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi,
Check with Seagate and see if there is a firmware update available or issues with the particular model USB drive.
Check at the HP site for a QFE that pertains to your issue. I do see one available.
If the above fails to solve the issue then try the below.
Power up your PC. Now insert the USB drive (be sure to remove any critical data).
Open up the RUN window and enter the following commands:
cmd
diskpart
list disk    ----> note the drive # for the USB external drive
select disk #
clean   ---> this will totally clean the drive format, all partitions and data will be lost
exit
Now uplug the drive and plug it back in. You might get prompted to format the drive but ignore it for now.
Go to Disk Management expand the screen and locate the USB drive. Now click on it and initialize it as mbr and then then format the drive and assign a drive letter such as Y.
Now perform a windows shutdown and see if it hangs.
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

R&R Backup (Image) on two external USB drives

Hi Forum,
in the early BIOS state of my T500 and working with Vista I had to rebuild my system several times due to OS failures. For that reason I periodically run R&R and make images on an external USB drive.
Since I'm traveling very much I always have the USB drive with the image with me. The drive contains one basic backup and some incremental backups up to level 25 (at the time being).
Now my goal: in case of a theft or a failure of that USB drive, I want to keep a second image on another USB drive at home.
Now my questions:
1: Is it possible to make backups with R&R (basic and incremental) of one computer on several USB drives?
In that case R&R must detect which incremental level is present on the USB drive and create the appropriate backup (management of the levels on the USB drive, not on the computer).
Example: USB drive A contains one basic backup and some incremental backups to level 12 (consistent) - USB drive B contains one basic backup and some incremental backups to level 17 (consistent as well).
2: If the answer to question 1 is "yes" - does R&R manage this automatically in the windows interface or is it necessary to use the DOS level (rrcmd.exe). Which switches are to be set?
Many thanks for help
Axel

It is a difficult question: the help file isn't entirely clear.
Here is my recent experience: using R&R 4.21 I had backed up my machine to the internal drive + 1 external USB drive several times, so that there was the base back-up and several incrementals on both drives. I also had copied the base backup + earlier incrementals to DVDs using the advanced menu entry for that task, just to be on the safe side. And, using another program (the free version of Syncback by 2BrightSparks), I regularly duplicate documents + pictures to the USB drive, so I'm covered in 3 different ways on 2 types of external hardware.
On one or two occasions I did an incremental backup on the internal drive only--but the next time I did an incremental with the external USB drive attached, the missed incrementals were synchronized onto the external drive.
Now, 2 weeeks ago I decided to zap the main disk and rebuilt the OS + programs to have a "clean slate" for 2010. When I had finished reinstalling everything minus personal files, I made a base backup (the only choice offered) on the internal drive with the external drive attached. This effectively erased the existing earlier backups on the external drive and copied over the new base backup.
So this synchronization only operates in one direction: the external USB drive's store of R&R backups is a replica of what is on the main internal drive.
I strongly suggest trying this all out (i.e. missing an incremental backup on the external drive, then making sure it has catched up after the next incremental backup) after making an external copy on DVD of the R&R backups. In fact, if you have the nerve, the patience and the time (and the DVD backups!), you should also try a bare metal restore of the DVD backup (I did last year when I bought this machine and hadn't too many personal files on it-- R&R 4.21 does actually work!)
sorry i can't be more specific, but my advice is to practice the "disaster recovery" at least once, early on, in order to be sure how it works if disaster does strike.

How to fix computer freeze with external USB drive attached

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