rsync to my external eSATA HD is crashing/freezing my system...

[Morgan Read]

Hello list

I've been running the following command, first in fc20 and then now 
(since the beginning of March) in fc26:
now=$(date +"%Y%m%d-%H%M"); sudo rsync -ahuAESX -vi /home/ 
/run/media/readlegal/Backup/home > 
/run/media/readlegal/Backup/rsync-changes_$now

Since the move to fc26, this command has caused the complete 
freeze/crash of the system.  I tried it under multi-user non-graphic 
mode in case it was something to do with new graphics systems (don't 
know why).  The output of the above always stops at:
sending incremental file list
.d..t...... Music/FLACs/Various_Artists/Temple_Sampler/
 >f+++++++++ 
Music/FLACs/Various_Artists/Temple_Sampler/13-brian_mcneill-the_butterfly_chain.flac

(total 183 bytes file size, always)

By complete freeze/crash I mean:
* hard-drive light indicates spinning, but no noise (activity)
* unable to ssh in
* unable to ping
* in multi-user text, I'm first able to switch to another login console, 
but then unable to progress past the login password; after switching to 
other consoles, the original login screen attempt has gone blank other 
than a blinking cursor top left
* in graphic mode, there's no (inter)activity whatsoever possible - 
though screen has desktop on it
* the only apparent solution is a hard reset

The external drive is a WD 750GB hard-drive in a StarTech.com external 
hard-drive caddy connected via eSATA cable to an old Dell Vostro 3500.

Any help or suggestions debugging this would be really appreciated.

Many thanks
Morgan.