Windows 7: Win 7 not booting up with external HDD connected and on

Just installed Windows 7 Business 64-bit the other day. One problem that I have be having is that if I have an external HDD connected and turned on during a reboot or power on Windows 7 freezes at the "starting" screen, HDD in laptop just does not work anymore. This happens before the windows graphic/logo loads - in order to get it going again it is a battery pull and then it will boot up fine if I restart without the external HDD connected.

Any ideas??

Check your BIOS settings to see if HDD is turned on.
I am no pc expert but that is my opinion

Yea that was my first thought as well. Should have mentioned I checked the BIOS and the internal HDD is first listed - so it should find Win 7 and load from there. At least how I understand boot up, and I am no expert either.

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Thanks.

Do you have the latest bios installed?

Do you have AHCI enabled in the bios?

The manufacturer of your external usb drive is?

Yes

AHCI? I have not made any changes to the bios from when I was running Vista - only thing I did was boot from DVD to install Win 7

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - This is enclosed in a external USB enclosure (Rosewill)

If I plug in the external HDD after boot up it works perfectly - only problem is during boot up.

What kind of "external" hard drive is this? And what connection are you using?

Example, I've had this issue at times with my Western Digital notebook (EX HD) which is hooked up via USB. On the other hand, I seem to have no issue with hooking up an external HD via SATA cable.

WD 3.5" in a external enclosure. Using USB for connection.

I see we posted at the same time so you answered my question about the type of HD.

I believe it's the fact that the drive is using a USB connection. As I said, I've seen this when leaving my external drive kooked up using a USB cable. Do you have a sata connection to hook it up to?

Also, Why do you need the external HD hooked up during a reboot?