Mini won't start up or shut down with hd connected

Question

I have always had this issue and hoped it would go away with 10.5
If I have harddrives connected to the mini either directly or with a hub then the mini will not shut down, neither will it start up. Turning the mini results in the grey screen appearing but the apple symbol does not, until the drives are disconnected or turned off then the mi will start up as normal.
I guess this is not a major issue but it is a pain as the mini is my server and lives in a cupboard up stairs which on the occasions I need to do a restart means I have to go up stairs to get it to work!
Is there anything that can be done?
The drives are freecom ones. But as point of reference I have tried the freecoms a lacie brick and a seagate on the mini and they all exhibit the same problem. The freecoms work fine on my iMac and the imac is able to stop and start just fine.
when I first got a mini and detected the problem I took it back to the apple store and they kindly swapped it for a brand new one and still the problem is there.

Answer 1

This is an interesting issue, because I've got a number of minis (mine and others I am responsible for) which all boot and shut down perfectly with external drives hooked up so in itself this should not be a problem.
In general, issues such as these don't get fixed by upgrading the OS or applying updates, and in fact can get worse if they reflect a problem which pre-existed on the system. At best, upgrading the OS can actually make the process of troubleshooting rather more problematic since (as in this case) the new OS can also introduce a number of additional issues which then have to be worked into the mix in terms of finding causes and solutions.
In your case, thew fact two minis have suffered the same thing tends to indicate it isn't directly related to the mini. To counter that, the fact it's happened to a variety of drives tends to make it less likely it's an issue with the drives. As such, I can't help but wonder if the root cause is something in the OS configuration that you've set, or software used on the system. An interesting experiment might be if the system will boot to the install disk by inserting it and holding the C key down during bootup.
Alternatively, it may simply be an issue with the mini's parameter RAM or system controller. You can reset both as follows:
Reset PRAM
-Shut down the computer.
-Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in the next step but one.
-Turn on the computer.
-Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
-Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
-Release the keys.
To reset the SMC on an Intel mini:
-From the Apple menu, choose Shut Down (or if the computer is not responding, hold the power button until it turns off).
-Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord and any display cables.
-Wait at least 15 seconds.
-Plug the power cord back in, making sure the power button is not being pressed at the time.
-Then reconnect your keyboard and mouse to the computer.
-Press the power button on the back to start up your computer.