SSD’s are very inexpensive nowadays. And they are lightning quick.
Transfer your entire system to it and you would be amazed.
Never needs de-fragging, either!...............
I think the OS is waiting for something it can’t reach. The timeout interval is too long, and it probably tries multiple times.
When a ssd fails, kiss data goodbye. In fact, ssd’s tend to be self healing and you may never know how bad yours had become.
Pretty sure ssd’s are riddled with backdoors.