R6700v2 Freezing when USB Drive is plugged in

Hoping that someone can help here.

I have a Nighthawk R6700v2 that has been working flawlessly on the previous Firmware. When i recently updated to the latest (V1.2.0.4_1.0.2), everything was working well for a short period of time, until I powercycled my router. My HDD is a WD 2TB, 2 partition drive with ~500GB files on it between the two partitions.

Symptoms now: My router works fine, as long as I do not have a USB drive plugged into the front 3.0 port. As soon as I plug any drive in, the router acts like it is going to recognize it, then freezes (all lights stay solid, web freezes, etc) and stays unresponsive (waited over 40 minutes).

What I have tried:

• Power cycle the router with the drive plugged in
  • tries to fully reboot and never makes it, wifi lights come on then power light stays amber and router freezes
• Power cycle the router, then plug drive in
  • same results as before, router works fine, then freezes when trying to recognize/mount the drive.
• Plugged the drive into a laptop (MacOS) and it read without issue. Performed First Aid on the disk just incase.
• Reset the router (when unfrozen of course) by holding Reset for 10 seconds
• Reset using 30/30/30 method then tried to plug in immediately after reset, before configuring settings, still freezes.

Any ideas on what to try next?