lenovo hangs on boot when usb drive is connected

[Colin Law]

On 9 June 2015 at 00:28, Dave Stevens <geek at uniserve.com> wrote:
> I'm using 14.04.2 on a lenovo that I remotely administer. I have an
> external drive attached for backups - has .tar.gz files no OS not
> bootable. Nonetheless it hangs on boot if the external unit is
> connected. I unplug the drive, boots normally, plug in and mount the
> drive, things work ok, can do backups etc. The BIOS settings don't seem
> to involve a problematic boot setting, just to boot off the primary SATA
> drive. Problem is I have to go onsite to reboot and that's awkward, as
> is leaving the kernel unpatched.

Any clues about how far through the boot it gets?  What do you see on screen?

If you disable auto-login (if enabled) does it get as far as the login screen?

Look back in /var/log/syslog to one of the failed boots and see if it
shows anything interesting.

Colin