The External HDD that causes the SystemUIserver to cripple Mac Mini

Hello all,
I have recently reinstalled my mac mini, starting with a secure delete of the Macintosh HD and complete DVD re-install with Mac OS X 10.6.4. I saved all of my data onto my external HDD which is a Western Digital 320GB. (Before i deleted and re-installed my mac i wiped this external HDD and formatted it to MS-DOS format using mac's disk utility software, so that i can move data between my HP Laptop (which i will be getting rid of soon and move to a mac book) and the mac mini with ease!)
Following the re-install i started to move all of my files and folders back to the mac when my mac became very very very sluggish. Taking 30-45 seconds to load safari (much longer for bigger programmes) and when i wanted to copy files across from my Ext HDD onto the mini it would copy at about 2-3MB/sec.
I subsequently went into the activity monitor and under the system memory tab saw that the SystemUIServer was using 3.14GB of real memory and was running the CPU at 80-90%. This was my problem. I then when onto the web to see why i was having such issues with speed and USB file transfer and forums talked about USB 1.0/1.1 selected or not having enough RAM which was not the problem here.
I then chose to force quit the SystemUIserver and my system started flying again, up to full speed, but it was only for 30 seconds until i saw the memory pie chart start to turn yellow once more as SystemUIserver started to eat up my real memory, (RAM).
I then turned off my Ext HDD, force quit systemUIserver and i once again had a stable system. So what is the problem??????
There is a communication error between my HDD and my mac which means that when i plug it in systemUIserver goes crazy, and slows the machine. What i do not know is how to get both my HDD and Mac talking without using up all of the RAM. Allowing me to transfer all of my documents back onto my mac. Why is this an issue???????.......Any help on this matter would be really kind as i did not have this issue on the previous install, but now i cannot stop this from happening.
Thank you

Hello again,
I have subsequently discovered that it is any external media that i plug in causes this fault. (my other external HDD, my 2.0 GB usb stick!)
Looks like that this issue is slightly bigger than i initially thought!
Thank you in advance

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