Hi!
Yesterday I bought a "standard" Lacie Desktop Hard Disk 1TB. http://www.lacie.com/se/products/product.htm?pid=11164
The problem is that the computer hangs at bios start up and the LEDS shows "Initializing Floppy Drive Controller" (After "Initializing Hard Drive Controller").
If i boot without external USB disk attached everything works find and the external disk works if i connects it later.
I have searched "the internet" and have found the same problems with Dell computers and Asus motherboard for example.
I have tried many different settings in BIOS but nothing works (enable/disable USB legacy support, PnP aware OS yes/no,enable/disable Floppy etc.)
Help!
Best Regards Peter
P.S I don't like the "Then disconnect it when you boot!" solution.... 
The problem is with the initialization of the USB port during the BIOS start-up (this is different to when you add it after start-up). During initialization, the BIOS queries the USB port to see if a device is attached or not. With the USB drive present and taking too long to respond, the BIOS USB initialization routine runs out of time.
The large drive is not only mechanical--much slower than electronic devices--but also its large capacity increases initialization time thus compounding the problem. Initialization is not only a software check but it also involves checking the electrical status of the port hardware.
No external USB device attached also means NO response, but the BIOS in fact confirms this by checking the electrical [interface] state--this differs depending on whether a USB device is present or not. If in fact no USB device is present, then the start-up routine will move onto the next subsystem. Here, the problem is the USB device is known to be present but not responding within the time limit allowed by the BIOS.
Bad BIOS programming combined with brain-dead USB hardware circuity that won't wait sufficient time for a response, or decouple itself from the rest of the hardware in case of a genuine fault, essentially leads to PC equivalent of a Mexican Standoff, hence the lock-up you are experiencing.
1. To confirm this just insert a small 1 or 2GB USB memory stick or USB mouse etc. into the USB socket and the PC should pass BIOS start-up initialization tests (note, there's always a rare possibility that the USB port is actually faulty--as opposed to a design fault--but it's unlikely).
2. PCs I've tested seem to differ considerably in how the different BIOSes handles large USB drives. I'd suggest you check the Lacie drive with a variety of other machines. Also test with different sized USB HDs if you have them (200, 500GB etc.).
3. You'll probably confirm that the PC BIOS is incompatible with the Lacie drive and you should inform both the PC's manufacturer and also Lacie (but I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for a fix). For each test ensure that 'legacy support is disabled'.
4. As this problem is essentially a design fault, you'll probably have to replace either the drive or the PC. As most 1TB drives are slow to initialize, it might be worth looking at a replacement PC, purchasing it on condition that it works with the 1TB drive (you'll probably find that Maxtor and Seagate 1TBs will also fail (as in my case), so just replacing the Lacie will probably not fix it). Note: this issue is such a problem that most of my PCs that are older than say a year or so fail to initialize my 1TB drives, irrespective of drive or the brand of USB-hub[1] (big brand name hubs fail just as easily as cheap ones.
[1] Electronics in the USB drive case.5. Below, is one of my earlier posts on the same subject. Note the warning about potential data loss from using large USB hard drives especially when they get near 1TB in size. When you eventually resolve the USB interface issues it still doesn’t mean that you've solved the potential data loss problems mentioned therein.
<Quote>
" In my case, the problem was partially resolved by killing USB 1.1.legacy support. In the BIOS under peripherals/USB or such [hopefully] you'll find 'USB 1.1 Legacy Support: Enable/Disable' (or similar). Normally this setting is 'Enabled' so just disable it.
Right, you now have no USB 1.1 legacy support, but this ought not be a major problem as most devices are now version 2. Suggestion: if you have any v1.1 USB devices (or simply as a reminder), put a note on your PC with words to the effect 'To run USB 1.1 devices re-enable USB 1.1 Support in BIOS etc. etc.'
There's little or no excuse for this s@#$ programming/hardware implementation, it's just shoddy design engineering/workmanship of the first order. Instead of increasing the polling--waiting sufficient time--for the external USB device to become ready the port hardware is held off and cannot be initialized. The result is that the 'held-down' USB port hardware remains in that state which, in turn, locks up the support chip hardware. Moreover, no one has bothered to put error hooks or delay routines within the USB subsystem to resolve the problem.
I've never much liked USB as it's half-baked, and this is a typical example of its weakness. A more serious example comes with Windows' handling of very large USB drives--250GB-1TB etc. If you have a lot of data on these now-popular external 'USB' drives then ensure that your machine has plenty of reserve and don't do anything to run out of resources whilst the drive is being updated. That's to say: if the drive is being updated (written to) then DO NOT invoke/run any program that will temporarily rob the PC of resources during the HD write cycle--simply, USB is insufficiently robust to handle these drives.
Very unfortunately, I have a number of drives whose MFT/directory info has been garbled with the loss of hundreds of gigabytes of data because Windows and USB/HD subsystem couldn't hack the pace.
Hope this note helps." 
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Topic: Hang at BIOS initializing when external USB disk attached (K8T NEO MS-6702) (Read 6768 times)
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