Drive won't let me dfrag, access files, many files missing

I can’t leave the my book plugged in. Whwn I turn on the computer it looks on the book for the start up, am using windows xp SP 3 I tried to format the drive and start over but it won’t let me. Any ideas and or help would be appreciated.  Jim

jimgovoni, would you kindly share with the WD Community the exact Model Number of your Western Digital External Hard Disk Drive? More information and details will allow more Users to better help you.

Regards,

it also sounds like you have other problems, like your boot order in the bios.