I recentley had to do a format and reinstall of XP (afer installing SP2 made
a significant number of my software stop working)
Since doing that, everytime I switch my external hard drive on, the computer
locks up, everything just freezes. The external has it's own mains power
supply, so I can't see it being that, but I just don't know what to do about
it.
(Before the re-install, if I also tried plugging my ipod into the firewire
card then the drive would "disconnect" - a pain considering I kept my music
on the external drive)

The firewire card is an orangelink, the motherboard is an abit VI7. I'm
running XP Proffesional with SP1. This has worked before (for a good year)
but since re-installing, I can't do anything with it - even trying to retest
it with new drivers is a chore, because as soon as the drive scans upon
power up, it freezes everything, and a push of the reset button is all I can
do.

Would be grateful of any help or ideas.

Bert