External USB Drive non-boot

[Brian DeLacey]

Hi,

I'm trying to boot Ubuntu (7.10 / 8.04) from an external USB hard drive, but
it's not able to find the hard drive.

One external USB hard drive I have boots Ubuntu fine (Samsung, 7200 rpm).
However, another external USB drive (Western Digital 5400 rpm, 320 GB My
Passport pocket drive) can't find the external USB drive and will not boot.

One odd anomaly: if I go into the system's BIOS, to alter a setting and save
it (e.g. related to detecting the USB hard drive) the Western Digital will
boot on the next system restart, however, it will NOT boot for subsequent
restarts. (It seems like the process of saving the BIOS "detects" the
external USB drive, but "forgets" it later.)

Any ideas why this Western Digital won't consistently boot? I've reinstalled
Ubuntu and GRUB. Are there any recommended tools for inspecting / fixing the
master boot loader?

Thanks for any suggestions,
 Brian
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