refuses to boot - Black screen

[Boggin]

What error code is it giving you ?

[peter915]

This time I tried a system image and got this error
0x8007045d
P

[Boggin]

That's an I/O error.

With the USB HDD connected can you open a Command Prompt (Admin) and enter chkdsk x: /f where x is the drive letter to see what that reports.

[peter915]

Copy of the results  - on my USB external drive:

c:\>chkdsk g: /f
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is TOSHIBA EXT.
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
  1536 file records processed.
File verification completed.
  0 large file records processed.
  0 bad file records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
  1580 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
  0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
  22 data files processed.
Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.
 976760407 KB total disk space.
  78402656 KB in 21 files.
        32 KB in 24 indexes.
         0 KB in bad sectors.
     97299 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 898260420 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 244190101 total allocation units on disk.
 224565105 allocation units available on disk.

c:\>

[Boggin]

Does anything else work in the USB ports and have you tried a different port ?

You may need the chipset or video drivers that support the USB drivers.

Are you now able to boot up with the Kaspersky or Paragon disks ?

[peter915]

A printer is plugged in the other USB port. Works OK
Haven't tried the boot up thing USB

[Boggin]

Does the printer also work in the port you have been using for the external HDD ?