Win2k3 freezing on boot (w/ USB HDD)

I have a seagate USB hard drive and when I hook it up to my server it freezes on startup. I dont mean it tries to boot to the seagate. It actually gets to the 2k3 splash screen but then goes black. From there it won't continue booting until i unplug or turn the drive off.

If you guys need anymore information feel free to ask. Thanks for you help.

Cody

what exactly are you trying to do...please explain. are you trying to boot up your server using the usb drive, or do you just hook it up after your server is up and running.
if you try to boot up your server using the usb external drive you need to enable that drive from the server computer's boot menu. the bios needs to support booting from the usb drive. secondly the primary partition needs to be on that usb drive instead of being on the server's original hard drive. the computer will look for the MBR inside the primary partition i.e. the C drive. if that is present on your original hard drive then it will boot it from there, and if it is present on your usb drive then the computer will start the boot sequence from there. its a long winded process of creating the primary partition on the usb drives. it involves disconnecting all the original hard drives, then using a boot floppy or cd to boot the computer up. then you need to use the fdisk facility to enable the usb drive as your main partition or primary partition. hence a copy of the MBR will be images there.
after all this is over, you carry on like normal. you can now add the usb drive, change the drive sequence in your bios as usb drive first, and then the computer will readily boot from your usb drive as the usb drive now has the MBR present on it.

I'm sorry I should have explained this a little better. I have a win2k3 server running with an external seagate hard drive for backup. But if the server needs to be restarted the backup drive must be unplugged because Windows wont boot if its plugged in. And when I mean it starts to boot. I get to see the Windows Server 2003 splash screen but right before it gets to "Applying Computer Settings" it just stays on a black screen until I unplug or turn off the machine. Its really annoying because its a remote server and we can't be there everytime it reboots.

Sorry to make you write all that out.

Thanks for all help,
Cody

i have come across this problem earlier. please tell me that you have an intel motherboard inside that computer that has windows 2003 server installed on it.
it's something to do with the way intel motherboards treats usb devices.
if you can confirm that it is an intel motherboard, then we can go ahead to clear the issue, otherwise it's rather pointless to tinker around the server with the intel-related resolution

Thanks Arani,

It in fact is a Intel based motherboard. CPU-z doesnt show its manf. but it does say its chipset is "ServerWorks". Also its a Xeon processor.

Thanks for you help again,
Cody

hi,
The problem probably wasn't caused by the availability of USB 2.0 ports, but by the way that Intel has designed the USB controller. Basically, an intel motherboard computer has one USB 2.0 controller and three (or five, if you enable all the ports) USB companion controllers that report themselves as USB 1.1 devices. If you plug a USB 2.0 device into any port, the device functions at USB 2.0 speeds; the controller handles the logic internally. USB controllers from different vendors might not report ports in the same way and might not indicate that all the ports are USB 2.0 capable, but each should have the same functionality. hence might be the reason for your unusual frozen splash screens.
maybe you want to check with the vendors of your usb external drive, how it reports itself to the usb ports