Banana Pi not booting after USB HDD

My Banana Pi detects the HDD via USB. After mounting it gets stuck.

Now the stupid part:

After resetting (button or removing power) it does not boot anymore. It lists some boot stuff, waits and reboots - classic boot loop. Now, removing all devices (even HDMI) does not restore the Pi (power supply has 5.1V 2.1A).

All I can do is reinstall Linux (2018-01-04 update BPI-M2 Ultra/Berry Ubuntu 16.04).

I tried updating the OS, a SATA HDD works fine, but the USB HDD bricks it every time.

Please tell me what going on.

Please post U-boot configuration change needed for /boot on SD, and / (root) on /dev/sda1 for the current Raspbian. I’m new to U-boot.