Why is my external hard drive loading photos so slowly?

The delay may be caused by thumbnail generation rather than the drive itself. If your file browser is set to show thumbnails, it has to open and inspect many files before displaying previews. Try switching to a simple list or details view and see whether the folder opens faster. A spinning hard drive is especially slow when scanning many files, but that behavior alone usually is not a warning sign.

Hard drives struggle with large numbers of small files because they have to perform many separate reads. Grouping files into larger archives can improve transfer speed, although it makes individual files less convenient to access and means one damaged archive could affect many items. Organizing photos by year, month, or event is still a good idea for finding them later, but the folder structure will not prevent corruption. Safely eject the drive, use a reliable cable and USB port, and monitor it for repeated errors or disconnects.

A traditional external hard drive will generally be slower than an SSD, especially when connected over USB and when handling lots of separate photos and videos. Slow loading by itself does not mean the drive is failing or that your files are being corrupted. If you value the data, follow a 3-2-1 backup approach: keep three copies, on two different types of storage, with at least one copy somewhere else. An SSD can be a useful additional copy, but it should not replace the original backup.