Windows 7: Startup Extremely Slow When External Hard Drive Attached

hi guys,
i just bought an external HD drive and it's very good but ... When I attach my external hard drive start up becomes painfully slow , like at least 5 times slower !. I get past the BIOS load screen fine but once the computer gets to the Starting Windows screen it sits there for a good 30-60 seconds. Then when the screen goes black (as it's going from the "starting windows" screen with the little windows 7 icon to the login screen) it again sits for anywhere from 1-2minutes, if not longer.

i have an old external HD and I've been using it for 2 years and never had this problem !
another thing when i click on " safely remove the HD " before i reboot and without taking the usb off the computer just stats normally !
so whats the problem because this is annoying me

the new HD

the old one

i have the same problem with mine. i havent found a fix yet, although i've tried several. for now, when i restart, i unplug the usb cable and plug it back in after windows starts.

My external HDDs always slow down startup. Even more so when they have multiple partitions. I assume partly due to the BIOS POST checking of peripherals and maybe OS checks.
I never buy external HDD with software backup built in. I (personal view only) think the backup software/capability is rubbish and I think it may add more time to startup.
I often connect my ext HDDs after startup.

^^^
i tried it on my brother's computer ( windows xp ) and it didn't slow down the startup ;\
so i guess the only solution for now is to unplug before the startup
and i'm just curious ... what are external HD's ? ( WD ) ?

HD - Hard Drive
WD - Western Digital

+1 ....Same here ...
Yours at least boots up ..slowly ...
Mine keeps recycling booting ...
This is a BIG bug with w.7 ..wonder why M$ hasn't come up with any fix ..

This is an issue that spans windows releases. I have had this exact issue with Win XP and Win 7 using external hard drives and usb printers. The issue is absolutely related to USB.

I would turn off any USB Boot options in the BIOS and see if that helps. If not just unplug device prior to boot.

'I would turn off any USB Boot options in the BIOS and see if that helps. '

That was the first thing i did ....won't help ...
Definitely w.7 bug ...some where along the line ...Just hope M$ will fix it ..

Make sure in Disk Mgmt the external isn't marked Active.

During bootup, this will cause it to look for boot files there.

You can mark it Inactive using Diskpart or free Partition Wizard.

I would try formatting it again as well.

Make sure your chipset drivers are up to date.

i tried every thing anyone has said
nothing helped lol
thanks for the help ; )