Solved WD "My Book" 12TB USB drive hangs Windows 11 Pro on boot

GeorgeM said:

Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post - I've read (and reread about 4 times) all of your responses. My external drive is the exact one pictured above by Dru2; both computers I've had the same issue with are Dell XPS desktops, one with Win-10 and the new one with Win-11; ....

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As I said, I have the exact same drive as you, and am also running Windows 11, and Windows boots just fine with it connected. I've also never formatted/reformatted the drive. Also didn't require any BIOS tweaks. Just used it as is straight out of the box.

Anyway, I just tested the 12TB WD My Book drive on my 2017 Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga X1 (Win 10), and it too booted with the drive connected. Again, no BIOS tweaking. Never even entered the BIOS. I then connected the drive to my 2013 Asus Zenbook laptop (Win 10), and it too booted without issue.

So, a Windows 11 desktop, 2 Windows 10 laptops, and all three shutdown, restart, reboot, and cold start with the drive connected.

With everybody opining WD is the issue, I'm one who actually has the drive in question. And at my end, no issues on three different PCs. The only thing I can think of at this point is a Dell thing - Dell doesn't like external drives connected when booting or the WD drive is faulty.

Have you scanned the drive for errors? It is probably just a simple and fixable error.

@GeorgeM,

One other suggestion, not that is has to be there, both my laptops didn't have it, but have you installed the WD Discovery software? "Maybe" that'll solve your issue?

Dru2 said:

@GeorgeM,

One other suggestion, not that is has to be there, both my laptops didn't have it, but have you installed the WD Discovery software? "Maybe" that'll solve your issue?

WDC-22014 - WD Discovery Desktop App Version 4.4.396 | Western Digital

Western Digital provides data storage solutions, including systems, HDD, Flash SSD, memory and personal data solutions to help customers capture and preserve their most valued data.

www.westerndigital.com

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I think the issue is not connecting to the WD. The WD is causing a boot up problem which means it is connected to the PC via USB?

To diagnose the drive itself, I'd suggest to install WD Drive Utilities and scan the drive for any errors.

Link: My Book (WDBBGB)
Direct DL Link: https://downloads.wdc.com/wdapp/WDDriveUtilities_WIN.zip

Another thing I would test for is to unset the Drive Sleep Timer to never. Then try to boot Windows with the drive connected.

If the OS fail to load after all these procedures, then this is most likely A Dell/Windows issue, not a drive issue.

...also, is the drive encrypted? If it is, then this may or may not cause issues too.

badrobot said:

I think the issue is not connecting to the WD. The WD is causing a boot up problem which means it is connected to the PC via USB?

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I think I just trying to eliminate other avenues.

Yes, I know there is no connection issue. I'm also aware you don't need it considering I have the same drive as the OP. And if you've locked the drive, you'll need it. Where the OP's issue is, the software doesn't need to be installed, but I want to eliminate avenues. And I did mention that it wasn't needed

Dru2 said:

@GeorgeM,

One other suggestion, not that is has to be there, both my laptops didn't have it, but have you installed the WD Discovery software? "Maybe" that'll solve your issue?

Click to expand...

SlicEnDicE said:

To diagnose the drive itself, I'd suggest to install WD Drive Utilities and scan the drive for any errors.

Link: My Book (WDBBGB)
Direct DL Link: https://downloads.wdc.com/wdapp/WDDriveUtilities_WIN.zip

Another thing I would test for is to unset the Drive Sleep Timer to never. Then try to boot Windows with the drive connected.

If the OS fail to load after all these procedures, then this is most likely A Dell/Windows issue, not a drive issue.

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All good ideas. Regarding the sleep timer suggestion, I wonder if the OP leaves the drive plugged in all the time? I only connect mine when needed. I never leave it plugged in.

I suspect it's hardware though. One test for the OP is to try a different drive. NOT a thumbrive though as those are likely to work anyway. Try a different external drive and see if you can boot into Windows. That will indicate a Dell setting.

As a side note, I'm not a fan of posted direct links where the file just downloads. One never gets a chance to say no. That's me.

Just wanted to add I don't have any of the Western Digital utilities installed except for WD Discovery.

I have the following external hard drives allways connected to my desktop computer: Seagate Desktop (2TB), WDC My Book (6TB), WDC Elements (12TB). I have never had a problem booting the computer. The computer boots UEFI and has Windows 10 Pro.

Some external hard drives are formatted exFat so they are compatible with both Windows or Apple IOS. If the drive comes formatted NTFS they must be reformatted if they are to be used with Apple IOS.

The only times I have had a drive cause hangups during bootup was when a drive was failing.

MisterEd said:

when a drive was failing.

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Either that or just a simple fixable error when a drive was abruptly pulled out of the system.

I recently just had this problem (starts with this post) and indeed the culptit was a dying spinner hard drive which is now replaced with an SSD. But I would like to assume that this OP's problem is not a dying hard drive. Or maybe it is. Only the OP can tell us.

MisterEd said:

I have the following external hard drives allways connected to my desktop computer: Seagate Desktop (2TB), WDC My Book (6TB), WDC Elements (12TB). I have never had a problem booting the computer. The computer boots UEFI and has Windows 10 Pro.

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Same here.

Yeah, I have external drives connected via USB 3 (3x NVMe in housings that are connected to my USB Type-C hub, which connected to my Type-C rear port) that causes no issue with booting as well.

But my previous rig, BIOS based instead of UEFI, was notorious for this sort of issue no matter what sort of drive was connected, going back to Windows 7. Drives with working bootloaders would pop perfectly fine but those without would cause, more often than not, wonkiness. It's why I started modifying boot order in the BIOS, and continue to do so later in UEFI firmware, because of the added benefit of not allowing accidental boots from bootable devices when I don't want that.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their valuable information and experience to this issue, which I believe is now resolved.

I had tried the last resort of moving all my data from the WD drive to another big USB drive, then reformatting from xFAT to NTFS, with very disappointing results - no change.

While talking to both WD and Dell Customer Support, out of the blue Dell released two system updates, one to the BIOS and the other to the storage driver. Now THAT got my attention!

I installed both immediately:

- Dell XPS 8950 System BIOS - 1.11.1 - 8.30 MB - Critical - Installed
- Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and Application - A02 - 52.90 MB - Recommended - Installed

I then went into the BIOS to see if anything looked different (nothing did), then saved, exited and rebooted; I then rebooted into the UEFI, checked to see if there was anything that looked different there (nothing did), and saved and rebooted out of the UEFI. If I remember correctly, just installing the updates didn't do anything right away. It wasn't until I went in and saved the config from the new updates that it made a difference.

The past two days the computer has booted normally with the WD 12Gb USB drive connected and powered up.

I'm thinking this was mostly a Dell issue, which seems to be resolved.