System becomes unresponsive when connecting USB hard drive

[Rich99999]

Hi,

Anyone got any suggestions for this one. I've got a dell XPS laptop (9550), with 1Tb SSD. I also have a 2Tb external spinning disk that I use as a file history backup drive. If the external drive isn't connected, everything works perfectly. However the minute I plug in the external drive, the entire system becomes really unresponsive. It stays that way for ~5 mins, then goes back to normal & everything is fine till I reboot, then the same thing happens all over again. Nothing obvious in event log. Using resource monitor, the only thing I can see is that when the external drive is connected, disk activity on the internal SSD is depressed (see below fig). No idea whether that's a symptom of the system having problems, or the cause, but either way I can't see why it would happen just because I plugged in a external drive. I tried changing the external drive, in case it was a weird fault on the drive, but it made no difference. And I've tried using different USB ports, to no avail. Any ideas how to troubleshoot?

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Rich,

I am not sure but it might be caused by "Disk" when you first connect the drive?, what you can do about is another question!.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

Drive is probably failing. Look for SMART warnings.

 

[Rich99999]

No evidence SSD drive failing, it works perfectly as long as external drive isn't connected. I've tried 2 different external drives, including 1 brand new one, which pretty much rules out a failing external drive.

 

[Trouble]

Do you have a third party security suite installed that is inspecting the contents of external media / portable devices, every time you connect one?
IF so, you may want to investigate its' settings / configuration to see if there is some method to disable that for trusted devices.

 

[Rich99999]

The only AV I've got is windows 10 inbuilt one. Nothing else is running.

 

[Wolfie]

Do you have the latest version of W10?.

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/

 

[Rich99999]

Do you have the latest version of W10?.

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/

Yes, all drivers updated, all windows updated.

 

[Wolfie]

You are running version 1703 then?.

Settings > System > About.

 

[Saltgrass]

I also have a 2Tb external spinning disk that I use as a file history backup drive.

Have you tried an external drive where the File History backup was not active?

I don't use that backup myself, but I understand the drive needs to be available at all times. Possibly when you plug it in, the system tries to catch up and is checking file status?

If you open the Resource Monitor before you connect the drive, you might be able to tell where the system was using resources or what it was doing. If the Resource Monitor does not give you enough information, you might want to go to Process Monitor to get a running log of what your system is doing.

If you decide to use Process Monitor, we can help set it up.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/

 

[Rich99999]

Have you tried an external drive where the File History backup was not active?

I don't use that backup myself, but I understand the drive needs to be available at all times. Possibly when you plug it in, the system tries to catch up and is checking file status?

If you open the Resource Monitor before you connect the drive, you might be able to tell where the system was using resources or what it was doing. If the Resource Monitor does not give you enough information, you might want to go to Process Monitor to get a running log of what your system is doing.

If you decide to use Process Monitor, we can help set it up.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/

I've tried turning file history off, then connecting the drive - the same problem occurs, so it doesn't *seem* to be file history. I've already tried resmon, I'll try procmon later today.