XP Pro SP2, 512M, Pentium M

I have an external hard drive connected through the USB port.

When I click on the icon in the taskbar and tell it to disconnect the drive
so that I can unplug it I receive a message that the drive is busy, try
again later. Waiting until later changes nothing.

When I hibernate, unplug it then start up it tells me it cannot find the
drive's MFT (e:\$mft)

What setting can I change to make it so that I can safely unplug the drive
either with the taskbar icon or by hibernating and unplugging while the
machine is dormant?

I have made two House Calls for our computer club this past week where the
system, prior to start up, is asking for a User Name and Password. In
desperation, I simply pressed the Enter key, then the normal user log on
page appeared.

My first thought was to check for Service Pack 3, nothing.

Any idea where this came from?

My daughters computer, emachines T2245, is corrupted, I believe. I'm trying
to restore the original image with the restore CD but am not getting
anywhere. I put in the CD and nothing happens. I open the CD and click on the
program icon and Windows says it can't open the file. This is a "old"
computer, about 5 years, with SP1. I can't even update to SP2. Am I doing
something wrong?

In windows XP,
I removed a partition from my hard drive
and then replaced the files
that had been in the partition.

All applications run fine, except
all file associations to their programs have been lost.
For example:
clicking jpg files no longer opens my graphics program
clicking pdf files no longer opens Acrobat.

I have tried in the context menu 'open with'
but the dialog will not add the icon of my graphics program
and will not open the file in the graphics .exe that I browse to.

I have tried Tools> Folder options> File Types
but I cannot change the association to the selected file.
I have deleted the file from File Type
and replaced it as a new file type
but still the association cannot be made.

Is there a way to associate my files
with their proper applications ?

I am logged as administrator. I can see the user folders in "my computer"
with the exception of one user. Has my son created some sort of hidden folder
option? If I log in as his ID I can see the files (His) under My documents.

I am wondering what will happen to the many many updates to SP2 that are
visible in Add/Remove Programs after downloading SP3. Since SP3
contains all those updates/fixes, will that long list of updates to SP2
be deleted?

Having a problem with running programs/opening files. Basically, i can't do
either. I know it's not the mouse button as this works on the Start Menu.
I've checked all the external connections as well. Any ideas? Thank you.