Keep external hard drive from auto start on boot up of pc

[ricktunes]

Hey all,

I just bought an western digital my book premium edition 250gb external hard drive. How do I keep it from automatically starting up when I boot up my pc? The drive automatically installed WD back up and WD button manager when I first connected it to my computer. So I've gone in to msconfig and unchecked both of those from the start up list, but the external still auto starts on boot up. I've unchecked the external drive in the options of the wd back up, which I'm not even going to use so I should probably uninstall it. I uninstalled the wd but manager, but I can't use the button on the external itself to turn it off w/out the but manager installed. I can't figure this out and it is very annoying. Do you have to unplug the usb cord from the external to the pc to stop auto start?

thanks.

 

[ski]

The "Auto Start' feature is designed into the drive, so every time your system boots up the O/S detects this feature, and starts the drive.
However, it's also supposed to turn off after approx. 10 minutes if the drive sees no activity.
If that's not satisfactory for you, then you can try connecting the drive after the system has booted up.

 

[wahnula]

Just remember, if you plan on unplugging it once the PC is running, be sure to use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature to stop the drive.