External HD slow to mount every time I boot up Mac

My external SSD drive frequently takes 3 to 8 minutes to boot up on Ventura 13.7 on an M2 Macbook. It seems like a common and known problem. It is apparently the same in Sonoma, any solutions been found that are relatively easy, I am mean it is terrible, like Apple in 1999 before Version X when it would crash all the time. It doesn't bring the system down but it basically freezes it. Any help would be great. It's extremely frustrating. Thanks!