External Hard Drive keeps on showing Autoplay prompt

[kevindd992002]

I have a fresh install of Win7 x64 Ultimate on my PC and there are times that when I reboot my computer or turn it on from an off state I get the Autoplay prompt for my External HDD. This occurrence is totally random and it doesn't happen sometimes. It just gets annoying that when you boot up you see that prompt and you have to close it every now and then. What could be the problem in this case? I have an Asus P8Z68-V motherboard.

Please help. Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Kevin,

If you don't use it, then turning off AutoPlay should sort this for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[speedgamer01]

You can check if the plugs are connected ok. Otherwise this is normal in my opinion.
Though you can disable it, open Control panel > Autoplay, now set mixed content or any other fields to 'take no action'.
The message might pop up for a moment afterwards as well, but most times it doesn't as i can remember.

 

[kevindd992002]

But i do use Autoplay. I want the Autoplay feature to come up when I plug in USB devices in my PC. I'm just annoyed with this one because it is already connected and why should it still me prompt up that. I would say it is "normal" if it happens every single time I reboot or shutdown and turn back on. But this isn't the case, it is happening randomly. I still want to know what's causing these?

One thing to note though, USB3.0 legacy support, USB legacy support, and EHCI Hand-off are all disabled in my BIOS settings because based on what I'm reading in the Internet, Win7 natively supports all of these. Does that ring a bell in my problem above?

 

[Brink]

Kevin,

From what SG posted above, do you have the external HDD listed under "devices" in AutoPlay (Control Panel) where you could set it to "take no action"?

 

[kevindd992002]

Kevin,

From what SG posted above, do you have the external HDD listed under "devices" in AutoPlay (Control Panel) where you could set it to "take no action"?

There is no Device listed under "devices" in Autoplay (Control Panel) even though my external HDD is connected and running properly. Is that also normal?

 

[Brink]

Sometimes a external HDD may be displayed, and sometimes not in AutoPlay.

 

[Windows i7 920]

Also try making sure there's no autoplay configuration file on the HDD itself as this could cause it.

 

[kevindd992002]

What does it mean if the device is not listed under Autoplay? Why is my drive still randomly Autoplaying "just after restart"?

There's no Autoplay config file or whatsoever in every directory present in my external HDD. One thing to note though, I partitioned this drive to be GPT, does that count for something in this situation?

 

[logicearth]

I'm going to take a guest as to why this is happening. The drive turns off, Windows thinks it has disconnected, the drive turns back on, Windows thinks it has reconnected. Either way, I think this problem is hardware related in some way.

 

[kevindd992002]

I'm going to take a guest as to why this is happening. The drive turns off, Windows thinks it has disconnected, the drive turns back on, Windows thinks it has reconnected. Either way, I think this problem is hardware related in some way.

Well, the thing is that it never happens when I connect it to the laptop. And when connected on the desktop, it only happens when REBOOTING the computer. Comments on that?

 

[marsmimar]

Just another guess but maybe it has something to do with the desktop power plan. Some desktops have a hybrid sleep option that puts the computer into a low-power state. Perhaps the computer goes into hybrid sleep after "X" minutes and this affects how the external HDD is treated when the computer comes out of hybrid sleep mode.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/778-power-plan-settings-change.html

 

[kevindd992002]

Just another guess but maybe it has something to do with the desktop power plan. Some desktops have a hybrid sleep option that puts the computer into a low-power state. Perhaps the computer goes into hybrid sleep after "X" minutes and this affects how the external HDD is treated when the computer comes out of hybrid sleep mode.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/778-power-plan-settings-change.html

I've turned off hibernation already so hybrid sleep isn't an option. And it doesn't happen in "X" minutes also. I can turn on the desktop all day long without the autoplay issue happening. It just happens when I reboot the desktop and even then it happens randomly (not always after reboot).

 

[marsmimar]

Definitely an odd situation.

If it's strictly a reboot issue perhaps (and this is just another SWAG) your machine has damaged or corrupt system files adversely affecting how the external HDD is seen. Safely remove the external HDD and try running a System File Checker scan just to see if there are any problems. If, by chance there are any file issues, run the scan three times rebooting in between each scan.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[kevindd992002]

Definitely an odd situation.

If it's strictly a reboot issue perhaps (and this is just another SWAG) your machine has damaged or corrupt system files adversely affecting how the external HDD is seen. Safely remove the external HDD and try running a System File Checker scan just to see if there are any problems. If, by chance there are any file issues, run the scan three times rebooting in between each scan.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

I've already reinstalled Win7 multiple times and the result is the same. Does turning off the USB legacy support in BIOS have something to do with this?

 

[marsmimar]

I would guess that depends on how old the external HDD is. What happens if you enable the USB legacy support?

 

[kevindd992002]

The external HDD is brand new. It is USB 3.0 and contains a newly released Hitachi drive. I'll try enabling the USB legacy support first and see what it does because the problem is random so I have to reboot until I reproduce it.

 

[marsmimar]

OK, the problem does not occur when the external HDD is connected to a laptop. The problem does occur when connected to the desktop. I'm assuming that the laptop does not have the same BIOS, mobo, etc as the desktop. Also, the laptop has different USB ports, etc. Have you tried connecting the external HDD to a different port? Are you using a hub? Does ASUS have any self-diagnostic tests for mobo, BIOS, etc?

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support-

If no diagnostic tools perhaps you might consider submitting this issue to ASUS to see if they have any feedback.

http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx

 

[kevindd992002]

OK, the problem does not occur when the external HDD is connected to a laptop. The problem does occur when connected to the desktop. I'm assuming that the laptop does not have the same BIOS, mobo, etc as the desktop. Also, the laptop has different USB ports, etc. Have you tried connecting the external HDD to a different port? Are you using a hub? Does ASUS have any self-diagnostic tests for mobo, BIOS, etc?

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support-

If no diagnostic tools perhaps you might consider submitting this issue to ASUS to see if they have any feedback.

http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx

Ok. I plug it on one of the USB 3.0 ports in the motherboard. No I'm not using a hub.I'll try plugging it in a different port first. I've already tried the self-diagnostics of ASUS and they all passed without any problems.

 

[debugged]

If you're comfortable backing up and modifying registry -
In regedit look at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
If the Explorer key isn't there, look here instead:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
(If the Explorer key isn't there, create it)

In the right pane create the dword "NoDriveTypeAutoRun"
Default value is 91 which is supposed to stop autorun on unknown and network drives, which is default behaviour.
A value of 99 should stop autorun on fixed drives as well.
Or a value of 8 stops autotun for fixed drives only.
In your case, I would try 99, which would cover most of the ways your Windows could be seeing that drive.