Thanks for the reply Comp1962. Please see my replies in red
Comp1962 wrote:
Hi slickman welcome to the forums.
What you describe is not normal. Could you make a Remote Desktop Connection so you can see the Servers Desktop. Then connect a USB or eSATA device while monitoring the desktop to see if the server posts a message like loading drivers and I am curious if the driver load requires a reboot for them to take affect.
I can RDP to the server desktop fine. While connected and plugging in an external device, I can see the new drive show up under "My Computer" however that is as far as it gets as the session will lock up while the server reboots. No message shows on the screen
The other thing is if the device is left connected during the reboot what happens? Does the server reboot again and again or does it boot and allow access to the connected device?
If the device is left connected, it will not boot up at all. The server just blinks red on the server indicator light. Once the device is unplugged, it will boot up fine.
Some external devices like drives which have a partition with a backup utility could be causing a conflict with the server but this would not be for all devices. I know some WD External Drives when left connected will cause issues because of the embedded software but not a reboot.
All drives have been completed formatted so no third party application are installed on the devices
The other thing is if you connect them to a client what messages appear on the client if any?
Connecting the external devices to any client devices show up just fine, no failures occur
Last thing to help me better understand this issue can you list the devices your having difficulty with. Please include the Device Make, Model, Capacity and connectivity options? Also please note some external drives require 2 USB Connections one for data the other for power if they do not have their own power connection. I would be curious about the power consumption of the devices but if the issue occurs with USB Flash Drives then that's another issue. If you were connected to the Console and were looking at the health monitor you may be able to see changes in the voltage status before the reboot occurred.
The drives I have connected have been the following:
1. Centon USB Waterproof flash drive - 2GB - USB 2.0
2. Sandisk Slide USB drive - 32GB - USB 2.0
3. Western Digital My Passport external drive - 750GB - USB 3.0
4. Crucial M4 SSD 2.5" - 128GB - USB 2.0
5. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - 250GB 3.5" drive - connected via dock USB and eSata
6. Western Digital Green 1TB 3.5" drive - connected via dock USB and eSata
Tried all USB ports (one front port and 3 back ports) with the same results. The WD and Crucial M4 external drives are attached a single USB cable, they are not the split style that requires extra power. The desktop drives connected via dock have their own power supply
These are all the things I would be looking at and which first come to mind. You also mention that this issue first started a month ago and I am curious what changes, updates, ADD-INs might of been installed that you might recall. Even the smallest of details is helpful.
No other add-ins have been installed recently. The only add-ins are the ones I initially installed which was about 1.5 years ago and since than it has been running without issue. No hardware upgrades have been performed and has all stock parts from the factory since day one. Only Microsoft updates have been installed on the server to date.