Macbook Pro Heats Up / Fans Go Full Blast when connected to external HDD

This is something strange that started happening recently. Whenever I connect my 120GB Western Digital Passport, the fans start going fast and it starts heating up (not to a dangerous level). Time Machine is turned off and spotlight is not indexing.
There are three partitions: FAT32, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) [Time Machine Partition], Mac OS Journaled.
The FAT32 partition is used with my Vista machine too.
Any ideas before I go ahead and start reformatting the FAT32 partition?

Hi (ravipatel)-
When you plug the drive in to the Mac it will draw power from the USB port to run. Some drives pull quite a bit and put additional strain on the power supply thus heating it up and causing the fans to run louder.
Have you tried using a powered USB hub with this drive?
Luck-
-DP

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