HP Envy Restart is Slow or Hangs

[philip42h_2]

---

@TheOldMan wrote:

Yes, making my head hurt too!!  I do not have any other ideas.  The NAS seems good, though. 

About the only other thing would be to back up the data from the external drive - as data files - and then format the drive and transfer the data back, as files.  Thus deleting whatever is causing the problem. It must be a hidden partition or file that is causing this. That is about the only thing I can recommend.

---

Thanks for all your input - I'll try to put this one on the unsolved pile and leave it well alone for now ...

• I don't believe that the issue stems from the data on the external drive as such - but I could well be wrong about that!
• I note that I am using UEFI rather than legacy BIOS - and have no idea whether this could be related to the issue
• I note that the external drive is formatted as MBR while the internal drives are formatted GPT - and, again, have no idea whether this could be related to the issue
• I did at one point this afternoon disconnect the external drive and run the PC for a while in that state. When I came to reconnect the external drive Windows wouldn't recognise it! After a bit of faffing about I powered everything of and at the second time of asking the external drive is reconnected again. I've no idea whether this is an indication of the drive failing or USB just not being quite as plug-and-play as advertised. (I've never really trusted USB.)
• I note that there is an F.41 BIOS version available for my PC on the HP Support website but it's not [yet] being offered through HPSA

I've been trying to persuade myself to invest in a NAS for a while so now might well be the time ...

Thanks again

[TheOldMan]

Well, taking this external drive away and using a NAS would be a good idea and probably would solve the problem. 

I have a WD My Cloud that acts very similar to a NAS.  I've had it for several years and use as a NAS.  It is on my network and all of my computers can see it.  My smart TV's can see it and use it as movie source or picture source.  I am happy with the performance, while not quite a NAS, it acts the same and has a reliable interface.  That would be a way to go without a going into the expense of a full blown NAS.   IMHO, Good alternative.

[philip42h_2 · Accepted solution]

---

@TheOldMan wrote:

Well, taking this external drive away and using a NAS would be a good idea and probably would solve the problem. 

I have a WD My Cloud that acts very similar to a NAS.  I've had it for several years and use as a NAS.  It is on my network and all of my computers can see it.  My smart TV's can see it and use it as movie source or picture source.  I am happy with the performance, while not quite a NAS, it acts the same and has a reliable interface.  That would be a way to go without a going into the expense of a full blown NAS.   IMHO, Good alternative.

---

As with one mind ... thinking about it overnight I realised that I had overlooked the obvious and, as a last resort, ought to try the most obvious solution and connect the external drive via the network - exactly as you say, as a 'free' alternative to buying a proper NAS device right now.

So it's now plugged into the one USB slot on the back of my router, mapped as as a network drive and working perfectly. OK, it's not as fast as it was when directly connected but it's perfectly satisfactory for overnight backups. Whatever it was that was confusing the BIOS and Windows has 'gone' and the Restart delay is down to around five seconds - so that's a good result. 🙂

Now, at this point I have to add that @TheOldMan was [probably] right ... viewing it as a mapped drive via the router I can see a couple of extra folders that weren't visible (or 'hidden') when viewed as directly connected. Namely,

• $RECYCLE.BIN - we can easily guess what that was when managed by Windows
• System Volume Information

Looking at the later I can see two 'obscurely' named files of around 1GB and 49GB respectively. The dates suggest that they could only have been created by Windows File History and I conclude that Windows, in its infinite wisdom, was attempting to mount a File History volume even after I'd stopped using File History. This is consistent with the problem timeline - I started using File History (again) to establish a back-up after rebuilding the PC in May; the Restart issue occurred around that time; and, while I suspected File History from the outset, stopping using File History didn't resolve the problem - and I think we now know why ...

That doesn't explain why the BIOS was seeing a 'phantom' drive and I rather suspect that UEFI vs legacy BIOS and/or MBR vs GPT formatting comes into play here but life's too short to resolve that conundrum. I have a working PC that's configured as HP delivered it, and a working backup solution using the kit I already had.

So, with that, thanks once again for all your time and assistance, and I'll mark this problem as 'solved' ... 🙂

[TheOldMan]

That's great and it solved the problem.  Thanks for reporting that.

I also use a drive connected as you posted - via USB to the router, too.  While that is not as fast as a NAS, as you noted, it does work.  So basically I have two network drives.  One a WD My Cloud and the other connected to the router via USB.

For the benefit of others following this post. - two possible solutions.