Mac Mini sluggish when USB external drives connected

I'm not sure what's causing this issue, but I have a Late 2012 Mac Mini and when I plug in a USB 3.0 thumb drive or my WD My Book Studio (also USB 3.0), the mouse cursor is very sluggish and laggy. I will physically move around my mouse and the cursor is extremely slow to reflect such movements on the screen. It did it with an empty USB flash drive, so there's no indexing or anything else going on in the background. Ejecting the drive will not solve this issue until I physically remove the drive from the USB port. What's causing this and how do I fix it?

format the drives for MAC OSX extended journeled.....when you do that, is the problem still present?
Ive head of this before on WD drives (cant stand them) because they have some nasty bloat loaded onto them for installing them (no need for that EVER) on  your computer.
when you insert the WD drive, does the drive come up AND ANOTHER icon saying something like "WD xxxx"  (i recall its something like WD utility, or WD support)    ???
Ive got nearly 100 hard drives, but wont own a WD, ....if i get a free one, i destroy anything on it with a erase and wipe with disk utility "format for mac osx extended journaled"
AS FOR YOUR STICK DRIVE,......are you sure its mac compatable??? most stick drives list that in the fine print, and mac owners buy a cheap stick drive that isnt 'kosher' with MAC

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