XP wont boot with USB drives attached

[Arlo]

I have a very unusual problem with my PC and my external USB drives. Its like my PC did not like to start with any thing inside USB port plugged in... be it a USB pendrive or a USB external hard drive. Well if I remove the USB drive and then start PC, it boots properly. Then why is it not booting when the drives are already plugged in? Is there the problem with XP, with hardware or any other?

[Devasis]

Run A Chkdsk To Correct Posible Disk Errors.

Start -> run -> cmd

Msdons Windows Open

Type Chkdsk C: /r

[MrChris-]

Have you set the boot order to USB drive or something else? Check in the Bios and set the boot order with Hard drive as 1st preference and CD drive as 2nd. This may solve your problem. Also you can disable the USB detection from the Bios so that the system does not sense USB port at all while booting.

[Arlo]

Booting sequence is already set to CD rom as the first booth device and hard drive as the second boot device. All other boot sequences are disabled. Also, I cannot disable detection of USB ports from Bios because my keyboard which is also USB will not be detected then; and I need to select the OS from the multi-boot while booting with the help of keyboard.

[Devasis]

At what point does the computer "hang" during boot? P.O.S.T or when Windows starts?
In BIOS, under Integrated Peripherals >> disable "USB Legacy Support".

[SalVatore]

This is a well known problem. There is no real cure. The cause is usually a conflict with legacy USB support. You can try turning it off in the bios, but you may kill something else. If the drive has an on/off switch use it, otherwise disconnect when booting. As you say, you will probably have to live with it.