Wii lags/freezes when playing off of hard drive

I'm currently using usb loader gx and playing off of an iomega portable hard drive. For almost two years this things been running fine but now it lags and freezes during gameplay after running a game for about an hour. Is there anyone experiencing the same problem or knows what the issue is?. I'm wondering if my Wii is going bad or if it's my portable hard drive. The issue is revolving around when we play animal crossing. The game is still moving, but my character is locked in place, and everything else moves around. It's very weird because it's frozen but the game is still moving around.

Please HELP!!! Thank you,

Matt

Hey there Matt, I recently had the same problem. I've changed my USB and everything's been fine since. I had it with Bully, the game would freeze during the loading screens. Not done it since. Hope this helps.