External hard drive freezes the entire PC

Good evening,

All of a sudden, my external hard drive started freezing the entire PC whenever something related to the hard drive is requested (disk management, file explorer, etc.). I can't even update the PC (the restart screen spins infinitely (the whole night)).

If I try to execute something, it doesn't respond; the same goes for disk management, everything just spins infinitely, loops, and in the best case, freezes.

After a while, it builds up a sort of queue.

If I unplug the USB from the hard drive, all the actions I've performed since the first freeze are triggered.

For example, the explorer will open, the disk manager will display, and the PC will restart on its own. In short, it will execute all the clicks made since the freeze.

It's a bit like a printer queue. The first stuck page will block all other print jobs. As soon as you clear the paper jam (for example), all the other pages will follow.

Actions taken

- Plugged into several USB ports

- Connected to 2 different PCs => The desktop recognizes the G drive but without any information (remaining space, etc.), and the laptop finds nothing. On the desktop, if I right-click on the name, it freezes.

- Deleted Windows updates for a week (can't delete anything as long as the external hard drive is plugged in), but everything queues up once I unplug it.

That's all I've managed to do. I can't run any scans on it (the antivirus, Cleaner, and others freeze when I try to select /g from these applications, but start working again as soon as it's unplugged...).

What bothers me is that I have 15 years' worth of video library, music, and photos that I haven't been able to back up elsewhere (it's quite large).

Just in case, I want to specify that the hard drive has never fallen, has hardly moved from its place for over 6 years, and there's no overheating.

I am on Windows 10

Thank you :)