1TB External HD so slow its impossible to use

[blacktop.rose2]

I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden my Toshiba external hard drive has become extremely slow to the point that it constantly causes windows explorer to crash. I cant transfer anything on it and when I do try, it says things along the lines of 'MS-DOS' (function or failure I cant remember). The EHD is barely full, i've only used about 30 or 40% of its storage and I haven't added anything onto it lately that may have caused it to slow down so drastically. It's not my computer, as I've tried it on three different types to see if it was still slow, and it was and I've tried using different cables. Nothing seems to fix it. I've even tried deleting some files that aren't that important but the EHD is even too slow to allow me to do that. I've also found that whatever programs (like anti-virus software) that use the external hard drive or are working from them, become slow-sometimes making my computer slow. Thats why I've also been unable to see if its a virus and get rid of it because the EHD makes the anti-virus software too slow for it to work.

I've looked up different articles, even tried optimising the EHD for better performance, but nothing is working. I'd format it completely and/or buy a new one but I have some important files on there I don't want to lose.

If anyone has the solution or could help in any way at all, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[RolandJS]

I've been experiencing a similar thing from time to time; in my case, I had to close everything and restart -- however, in your situation, I'm going to listen in and learn alongside you because I too want a solution set.