Computer Suddenly Slow & Won't Recoginze External Hard Drive

Hey All,
My computer has been running really slow for the last few weeks. I can't even open Firefox 2.0 without it crashing. It also won't recognize my external 500GB GTech hard drive at all anymore so I can't listen to music or access a lot of my pics. It's connected via Firewire 800.
I have a 1.54 GHz Power PC G4 and I upgraded the memory to 1.5 GB. The internal hard drive is an 80 gigger with 17G left.
I ran disk utility on the internal and the below is what I got:
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume Homebase needs to be repaired.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair
* The Repair option is not selectable. What do I do as I don't want to lose anything on my hard drive.
I'd really like to know how to speed my Powerbook back up and what I can do to have it recognize the external hard drive again? And if I should even be messing around with the disc utility?
Any and all help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

In order to repair your internal hard drive, you need to boot from another drive. If you have your OS X DVD's, insert the first one, and reboot holding the C key. From the utilities menu, choose your internal hard drive and the option to repair the disk will be available to you.
Regarding the slow running, you might want to run the Apple hardware test. Insert the OS X DVD, and reboot holding the option key down. Choose the Apple hardware test, and choose the extended test. Does that identify any issues?
If you have OnyX, you might want to run the cleaning and maintenance tabs. In additon, under the utilities tab, run the check on the system preferences. OnyX is available from http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx.html

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Results 75.42
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Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.5 (9F33)
Physical RAM 16384 MB
Model MacPro3,1
Drive Type WD My Book
Disk Test 75.42
Sequential 80.92
Uncached Write 69.16 42.46 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 110.79 62.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 53.66 15.70 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 136.76 68.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 70.62
Uncached Write 36.38 3.85 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 140.55 45.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 93.26 0.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 88.38 16.40 MB/sec [256K blocks]
*MyBook 1TB on Firewire 400*
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System Version 10.5.5 (9F33)
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Model MacPro3,1
Drive Type WD My Book
Disk Test 47.73
Sequential 52.47
Uncached Write 48.45 29.74 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 53.76 30.42 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 43.69 12.79 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 70.91 35.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 43.78
Uncached Write 17.29 1.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 98.83 31.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 76.33 0.54 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 97.01 18.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
*MyBook 500GB on USB 2.0*
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System Info
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Model MacPro3,1
Drive Type WD 5000AA External
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Sequential 35.99
Uncached Write 37.31 22.91 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 37.22 21.06 MB/sec [256K blocks]
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Uncached Read 50.27 25.27 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 46.55
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Uncached Write 68.44 21.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]
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