Why is my PC boot time slow when USB HDD attached?

I have a USB Hard disk that I am using as a secondary drive just for extra storage.

When this is attached and I start my PC the second screen says searching for mass storage dives for about 5 minutes before continuing on.

The same happens when I have a USB pen disk attached upon boot. If I attach the device after the PC has loaded then it is very quick however plugging and unplugging is not ideal.

Is there away to disable this in the BIOS as I cannot instantly see an option.

On boot it informs me I have an American Trends AMIBIOS in the BIOS setup it states the version as v02.58 2006. This is running on a ASUS MV2 Motherboard.

Solution 1:

Usually this is because the BIOS is searching your whole drive for a boot sector that it can latch onto. You can sometimes upgrade the BIOS to make it a bit faster (usually just makes it give up easier). The other option is to remove the "removable device" from your BIOS boot order, or place it below your normal HDD.

Solution 2:

I had the same problem on an HP desktop. Almost 3 minutes to simply arrive at the Windows splash screen, vs 15 seconds without the USB attached. There are no BIOS settings which force the computer to ignore the attached USB drive. But I discovered a simple solution- purchase a USB hub (I bought a Belkin) and plug the drive into the hub, and the hub into the computer. Problem gone!