usb not found on initial boot

I have a bootup problem with a USB stick

I have a USB stick which is permanently plugged in (for backup
purposes). When the PC first boots the stick is never discovered, but if
I wait a few minutes and reboot, it generally gets discovered and
mounted with an icon on the desktop. I'm using Etch. I'd either like to
find a fix for this so that the bootup process finds the stick on first
boot, or failing that, to run some program to recognise the stick
without having to reboot.

Russell
=====================================================================
I've tried to pull out relevant lines from syslog (grepping "usb",
"ehci", "uhci") which are as follows on first boot when the stick fails
to be discovered:

May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: debug port 1
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: EHCI Host Controller
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 193, io mem
0xfebffc00
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus
registered, assigned bus number 5
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 started,
EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 11
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 16
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 24
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 31
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 7
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 8
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb usb4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 12 22:08:18 orac kernel: usb usb5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 12 22:08:21 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 50
May 12 22:08:31 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 87
May 12 22:08:33 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 95
May 12 22:08:34 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 4 reset error -110
May 12 22:08:34 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
May 12 22:08:34 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 97
May 12 22:08:36 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 101
May 12 22:08:39 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 115
May 12 22:08:44 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 5
May 12 22:08:44 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 6
May 12 22:08:47 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 16
May 12 22:08:49 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 21
May 12 22:08:50 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 26
May 12 22:08:53 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 38
May 12 22:08:58 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 4 reset error -110
May 12 22:08:58 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
May 12 22:08:58 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 54
May 12 22:09:02 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 4 reset error -110
May 12 22:09:02 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
May 12 22:09:02 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 68
May 12 22:09:05 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 78
May 12 22:09:06 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 82
May 12 22:09:08 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 88
May 12 22:09:09 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 4 reset error -110
May 12 22:09:09 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
May 12 22:09:09 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 91
May 12 22:09:11 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 94
May 12 22:09:12 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 98
May 12 22:09:13 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 103
May 12 22:09:16 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 113
May 12 22:09:18 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 121
May 12 22:09:19 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 4 reset error -110
May 12 22:09:19 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
May 12 22:09:21 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 126
May 12 22:09:23 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 7
May 12 22:09:25 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 16
May 12 22:09:26 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 20
May 12 22:09:30 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 32
May 12 22:09:31 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 35
May 12 22:09:31 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 36
May 12 22:09:34 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 45
May 12 22:09:35 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 4 reset error -110
May 12 22:09:35 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
May 12 22:09:35 orac kernel: usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 50

=====================================================================
Messages on successful reboot are:

May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: debug port 1
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: EHCI Host Controller
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 177, io mem
0xfebffc00
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus
registered, assigned bus number 1
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 started,
EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 1-0:1.0: 8 ports detected
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 2
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usbcore: registered new driver hub
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb-storage: device found at 2
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb-storage: device scan complete
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb-storage: waiting for device to settle
before scanning
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb usb3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb usb4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
May 12 22:19:11 orac kernel: usb usb5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice