External SSD drive freezes Finder after update to Ventura - HOW I FIXED THIS

Hi,

I'm writing this because, while searching for help, I saw many having this trouble but no solutions were posted.

My computer is a MacBook 13" 2020 i7 w/ 4 ports - 16 Gb RAM

So here's my experience:

I updated to Ventura last week (I actually jumped straight from OS 10 without problems) and noticed some weirdos with my Sandisk external backup drive like lags, backup disk not found for several minutes and other little things. Then, 2 days ago after an OS update, not only the disk was not recognized at all but it would freeze the FInder anytime I tried to explore it or scan it with Disk Utility. The problem extended further because my MacBook wouldn't start the Finder unless I had the disk unplugged. Also, as soon as I unplugged the disk, the Finder would immediately start working again.

Very bad as I have a partition with data and stuff other than the backups that are really important to me.

What I did to fix this has no technical explanation but it's just the result of a series of desperate attempts.

So, just to check if the port on my Mackbook was faulty, I used a USB adaptor and connected the disk to a generic USB 2 hub and the disk started working without conflicts with Finder for say 10 minutes. Then back again with the same problem. Connected it again to the same thunderbolt 3 port as before and the disk started working again. This time I moved as quickly as possible the data I needed from the partition and initialized the whole disk (journaled as usual) and now everything is back to normality.

I would be really happy to know the reason for such an annoying and time-consuming problem and hope anyone experiencing it can solve it as I did without buying a new disk as I've read from other posts.

Max