External Windows bootable drive freezes boot screen
I installed Windows on a 128 GB USB drive to run on my 2017 MacBook Air. I boot into it by plugging in the drive, holding Option key and select the Windows drive. It worked really well.
Yesterday, I booted up in to Windows as usual, everything went well, and suddenly, everything froze. I got a Blue Screen Of Death saying stopcode BUGCODE USB3 DRIVER. And as it told me to do, I restarted my Mac.
But now, if I start up and hold the Option key the Windows drive won't appear. And if I plug it in after I hold the Option key, the entire screen freezes for about 30 seconds and then the USB is ejected again.
I am still able to use my other USB to boot up in to Linux but if I boot into macOS, it doesn't even detect the Windows Flash drive. Windows (on another pc) seems to detect it but ejects the flash drive after 10 seconds. And I really don't know what to do.
The Flash drive does the same on other Macs.
How do I resolve the issue?
- After the BSOD your mac should restart to "Start Windows Normally" screen hit Enter To Start Windows Normally
- Go to device manager (Press Start and type devmgmt.msc and hit enter) and uninstall "unknown device" under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" Tick "Delete the Driver Software for this device."
- Now go to your Bootcamp folder i.e. BOOTCAMP_5.1.5621 or BOOTCAMP_5.1.5640 and go to Bootcamp > Drivers > Intel
- Now run the file IntelxHCISetup.exe. It will show you the intel usb3.0 setup assistant. do not install or cancel the setup as it will delete the temporary folder in temp
- Now go to Start and type taskmgr.exe and hit enter. It will open up Task Manager.
- In that you have to select Intel Installation Framework and type Shift + fn + f10 to open right click menu (Right click may not work unless you finish installing bootcamp fully).
- Select "Go To Process", and again press the Shift + fn + f10 key combination to bring up the right click menu
- And then select Open File Location, Now copy the contents of the folder to a new location i.e. by creating a new folder in the desktop or any other location
- After copying the contents of the folder to a new location go to Device manager and right click the Unknown Device and press the Right click key combination Shift + fn + f10 and select Update Driver Software > Browse my computer for driver software and browse for the folder that you created in Step 8 and click next. It will detect the driver and installs it automatically.
That should solve your problem with the USB Drive.