Zoning/PS2/3 Freeze Issues

Aside from the freezing now after a recent connection lost freeze my ps2 load times are ridiculous. It takes maybe twice as longfor the log on menu to even appear perhaps 3times much. also all the menus in viewer take longer to load, and when the game switches from viewer to XI the black screen lasts about 3-5 mins. Every time i zone in game, i freeze for approximately 27 seconds b4 i start downloading data for the new zone, same basic thing happens when i log out as well. also my game freezes for 3-5 secs when switching palettes and if i use a jump macro that switches book and palette i freeze for longer and get a Red dot moment. There are also short second freezes sometiems when just opening a menu or trying to use items. though of late i havent black screened or frozen on any npc's guess traded one evil for another ;;

Edit: i should prolly add i recently had to buy a hdd when i restarted onps2 because my old hdd stopped working with no explanation, and the installation took about 5-7 days >.<.