Strange System Lag Issue

Ok so I have this really strange issue and I figured out what was causing it.

I have two hard drives my primary with OS and a 2nd for just media.

My system is grinding to a HALT for some reason when transferring a file from my secondary drive to an external hard drive.

The transfer starts out fast, but quickly moves to a very slow speed, and while that transfer is happening I mean opening a window in firefox takes like 3 or 4 minutes, and you have to wait like 1 minute for each letter you want to type in the address bar.

Oddly I was able to play Prototype at the same time with no issues in game, and I tried again with the game off to see the game was not the problem.

I do not recall having this issue when using my other external drives, only a new 80gb Asus 2.5" drive I got.

I am also running it through a usb hub because sometimes I noticed hdd's do not get enough power so I use a powered up to play it safe.

I also get this strange error message sometimes that the drive is not running its full speed because its not in a usb 2.0 slot, but all my slots are 2.0....

I know there are probably too many variables at play for anybody to tell me what the problem is, I will have to see if I can figure it out by testing one thing at a time.

I just wanted to know if anybody has ever had similar issues and knew a fix or figured out what it was.

Currently i cant transfer a file to this HDD unless I start it and just leave it for a long time without using the computer, its so annoying.

If I try to cancel the transfer, almost instantly the system goes back to full speed but the actual cancel dialog takes a VERY long time to finish and go away.