I have 3 external hard drives hooked up on vista. Some times the os does not recognize them or it wont restart with them plugged in. Band new computer dual core plus I have a 1 gig jump drive plugged in back from optimized boost. Is a dell Inspiron Desktop 530S dual core 1.80GHZ processor. 300G hard drive. The thing is I never have this problem on my xp laptop.

Ok they are the Western Digital 1Tb My Book Essential Edition Model: WDH1U10000, Maxtor One Touch III 500G model: T01H500, Maxtor personal storage 3100 250G Model: M01H250.

For the WD: http://support.wdc.com/downloa.....38;swid=89

For the Maxtor: http://seagate.custhelp.com/cg.....faqid=4652

Looks like there are some updates for all three drives. Give them a try and see if it helps you out at all.