[campijr]

I am told Vista has an issue that causes it to hang at restart when multiple usb devices are connected. I have experienced this on two new computers and the result is the same. When I have my new WD External My Book Home USB hard drive connected Vista hangs when I restart. The pc will shutdown fine and the computer starts to reboot. Then, the monitor screen progresses to the Bios Logo screen and just goes blank. If I unplug the WD External USB hard drive the pc magically progresses past this hanging stage and is fine. I know I have isolated the issue to the WD External USB hard drive. Is there any fix for this issue?

My WD External USB hard drive also has connections for Firewire and eSATA. However, my new HP Slimline pc has a crappy Via Firewire controller and this tends to work worse than the USB hanging issue. I'm not really looking at eSATA as an option because I don't want to purchase a unreliable eSATA card and don't even know if I could fit an eSATA card in the small HP Slimline case.

[Rich-M]

John,
I will tell you the same thing here I did on KH, that an Adaptec 1394 card would solve the problem.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Adaptec-3-2-...QQcmdZViewItem

[Rich-M]

Originally Posted by Rich-M

John,
I will tell you the same thing here I did on KH, that an Adaptec 1394 card would solve the problem.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Adaptec-3-2-...QQcmdZViewItem

http://search.ebay.com/Adaptec-Firew...dZp1638Q2em120

[campijr]

Yeah, but will that Firewire PCI controller card fit in that small HP Slimline case? I see the card at the link you provided:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Adaptec-3-2-...QQcmdZViewItem
Only $10?! The PCI slot on this HP Slimline looks to be very short compared to a normal one. I posted the message at this forum just to get some more discussion on the topic. I'm disappointed there isn't a work around on this issue. After all, many of us have multiple USB devices these days. BTW, that card doesn't state it works for Vista on the ebay site.

I just researched the PCI card requirements for the HP Slimline. The PCI card has to be a Low-Profile card with a power consumption of 5 watts or less.

Just searched newegg.com for low-profile PCI cards. Can't locate an Adaptec card. There are also eSATA low-profile PCI cards. The WD Ext. hard drive also works with eSATA. The speed would be great at 3GB/Sec., but I have heard eSATA can be unreliable.

[Rich-M]

John,
I have yet to play with eSata so I haven't a clue, but I dpoubt anything could be more unstable than usb ports.
Yes you are right about low profile, I forgot about that, but why is this drive on that little unit anyway. I would assume it would be on the desktop we built.

[campijr]

I have this drive on the little unit because we play music from the external drive. The Enermax build is fine. If I move the external drive to the Enermax pc I'll still have the restart and hanging issue. But you are right - I could simply buy a regular PCI Firewire card for the Enermax pc.

[Rich-M]

OK but how do you make image files on the Desktop? Or where do you store them?

[campijr]

I move the WD External hard drive from computer to computer. I do this for the desktops and laptops. I have all of the True Image backup files on the external hard drive.