External USB HD causing explorer.exe to not respond, mouse to lag, etc

Hi all,

So, I'm new to the forums and appreciate any direction/help that I can get. I searched but did not see another thread that would be better to post this in...

I use a WD My Passport Ultra (1TB) to store live music mp3s on. For many months everything was working just fine: I download the zip file to the external, unzip it using winzip 20 to the folder location desired on the external, and enjoy the music.

A couple of weeks ago the external started to barely load when viewing in explorer.exe (working on it..., not responding). Now, I've noticed that extracting files is taking a LONG time and when I plug in the external my mousepad functionality subsides (can't scroll and it is unresponsive for a few seconds at random times).

I've performed many troubleshooting steps to resolve the issue including WD troubleshooter, chkdsk, etc. and the external passes all tests...

Does anyone have any help they can offer up to help me resolve this?

Hi,

I posted this in Drivers and Hardware as that would be a better location. Sorry about that - newb move. :)