Resolved USB drive stops bootup

Hope this is the right place for this - newbie with first post.
Following repair to my PC, my external usb drive (or any other USB device) stops my pc from booting if left switched on at boot time. I have looked at many forums and most tell me to switch of legacy USB in the bios. This I have done but no change. I can disable USB 1 and 2 support which cures the prob but then I cant' use the drives post boot. I want to use "Ghost" to image my hard drive to the usb drive but its instructions tells me that the USB device MUST be connected at boot time - hence the reason and the problem. There appears to be no other options in the bios.
My motherboard is an ASUS M2NPV-VM ACPI BIOS REV 0504 and the Bios is PHOENIX AWARD V6.00pg. Any help appreciated.

 

Please follow Pete's instructions.

You can try going into the BIOS (startup configuration settings) and look at the options for the boot devices. In the list of boot devices there is probably a USB drive/device before the HDD, change it to after the HDD.

 

specs

Thanks Pete, all entered that I know off.

 

Thanks Mattman, thats my problem. In the boot bios, as I have no floppy (replaced it with 200MB Zip atapi drive), I have boot order set to
- H. Disk - CD rom - 0 - 0 but I am able to change this, but only those shown. There is no USB option other than that I mentioned - USB 1 support, USB 2 support and USB Legacy elsewhere in the BIOS settings. If My external drives are connected when booting, they are visible in bios, but they won't allow full boot. I ought to mention, nor will any other USB device plugged in. I have been in touch with the repairers but they seem very vague and will only suggest that a BIOS update may cure the problem but, can't say wich one. As my BIOS is Phoenix Award V6.00pg dated May 2006, I thought this to be a reasonably upto date one. Any further suggestions please?

 

I don't believe it!!!

I fitted the Zip long before the repair (actually only swopped the floppy with the zip and it seemed to work) and most of the time, it works happily as my "D" drive, though sometimes it disappears and I rescan hardware (never need to install) to bring it back.
I never reset the bios to default - never actually touched it since the repair but had looked at doing it. But when I saw the boot order as ---
1. Removable - 2. H.D.drive - 3. CD Rom and 4. disabled, I thought that was exactly what I DIDN'T want. However, following your comments, I did reset to default, I got the boot order as above but, it now works fine. I know the bios in side my head is getting very old but I don' understand why this works. But it does and thats all that matters to me. Many thanks for your help.
John