system halts during boot

[daveiosys]

When I boot up I have system set to boot from SATA drive.
System OS - XP Professional SP2.
I have two hard drives connected via PCI controller (Silicon Image ATA-133 Medley Raid Controller card)
I have four USB hard drives hooked up to a Belkin hub.
Maxtor 3200 USB Device [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) - drive 3
ST340063 3A USB Device [Hard drive] (400.09 GB) - drive 4
Seagate FreeAgentDesktop USB Device [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) - drive 5
Seagate FreeAgent Pro USB Device [Hard drive] (750.15 GB) - drive 6
When booting USB auto configuration passes ok.
Memory check is ok.
Computer hangs after identifying the four USB hard drives.
Windows does not launch.
If I disconnect USB hub system starts without a problem but then
I do not have the hard drives.
I can plug in USB hub after Windows has booted.
Windows then detects them.
Disk Management sees hard drives.
All hard drives are NTFS.
Any ideas how to resolve this issue?
I await your reply.
Thanx.

 

[PC eye]

Having 4 hard drives on one port is obviously pulling down the usb bus. Windows may be having problems now detecting them for that or perhaps a weak battery on the board if no faults are being seen with any of the drives.

Is your power supply adequte? When was the last time you used a can of air cleaner inside the case to see all the dust blown out? Besides internal temps the controller card may be starting to see signs of an upcoming problem.

 

[daveiosys]

System is 2 weeks old:
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5GC-MX/1333 Rev x.xx
Bus Clock: 333 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0207 08/01/2007
2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
3 Gig RAM..

Would it help do split the external USB drives up & use a second USB hub?

 

[PC eye]

That would be one idea to see if the bus is being pulled down too much. Hopefully you are not also running into any board problems but simply need a minor change. I generally don't advise arrays for a new buld howenver when that is for the OS. One little oops! and your entire system is down.

Trying to push 3tb there? Lately I've looked at some 2tb external drives for usb unless you have them setup for separating different file types. But using more then one port would be the first thing to try there to lighten the load on one single port by itself.