Windows 10 fails to Start When USB Stick is Plugged In

JamesJoey · 22 Jan 2018

I backup data to my USB.
When I forget to remove it and restarting in the morning. the boot gets to the blue Windows logo and stops.
No progress indicator... nothing.
After removing the stick and then pressing and holding the power button the system starts fine.
I was having the same symptom when I had 'Turn on fast startup' checked.
Of course, everytime Windows 10 does a major upgrade it re-checks this option forcing me to switch it back.

Anyway, anyone have any idea why my stem won't start when I have a USB stick plugged in?

James

dmholt57 · 22 Jan 2018

Do you recall setting the boot order to USB first, did you do an install from USB boot?

JamesJoey · 22 Jan 2018

I never did a boot to USB

The boot order is

CD-ROM
HDD
Floppy

I don't see a USB in the boot setup screen.

RickC · 23 Jan 2018

Depending on your system, you may only see USB in the Boot menu if you actually have a USB stick inserted before booting and entering the Boot menu.

Steve C · 23 Jan 2018

Also check you have no active partition on that USB stick which can confuse the boot process. I use MiniTool Partition Wizard to check this.

JamesJoey · 23 Jan 2018

Steve C said:

Also check you have no active partition on that USB stick which can confuse the boot process. I use MiniTool Partition Wizard to check this.

Doesn't there have to be an active partition to write data to it?

JamesJoey · 23 Jan 2018

RickC said:

Depending on your system, you may only see USB in the Boot menu if you actually have a USB stick inserted before booting and entering the Boot menu.

After inserting the stick the setup showed a 4th device in the boot priority. I was 4th in order.
It referred to it as 'Network Group Boot.'

I disabled it. Which I assume it won't look top this device for booting.

I hate messing with setup. Been along time.
I'll see if it boots ok in the morning, seeing it only happens after the system has been powered down for a while.

Mark Phelps · 23 Jan 2018

JamesJoey said:

Doesn't there have to be an active partition to write data to it?

NO -- the Active partition is the one that is used for booting. You can write data to any partition with a Windows filesystem on it.

Berton · 23 Jan 2018

All of the USB Thumb drives I've worked with and own have come formatted as FAT32, can be read by Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. USB HDDs for Windows usually are NTFS although my latest 4TB came from WDC formatted as exFAT and should work on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. Mac OS X does have issues with NTFS unless using a third-party software from the Apple Store. Windows usually can't work with the Mac-formatted drives.

lopedoggie · 23 Jan 2018

Here it was an incorrect bios setup. A repair in place fixed this issue and set boot priority to optical drive first, primary drive 2nd and so forth and windows boot manager disappeared as an option. The in place also set the bios to UEFI only. Prior to this all external devices had to be either all turned on (all usb slots filled) or all devices turned off but usb slots still had to be filled. Definitely do not know why this was the case. My mobo also ran out of current bios updates at win 8.1. I am not saying this is your answer but, maybe an in place os repair or re install may help you.