TM using main hard drive as backup

I have a MacBook Pro and I am using Time Machine on 10.5.2. When I am at my desk, I plug in my external drive and use that for backup but every time I eject the disk, TM then makes my main hard drive the back up drive (with the TM icon and all). Then when I plug my external drive back in, both are still recognized as TM back up drives. This makes me very nervous especially since when I came into work this morning, my address book had been wiped clean and I have no idea why. Could this be doing something to my data. Does anybody know why this would be happening. I have 3 other Macs that I use TM on and this is the only one with the issue.
Thanks in advance.

The problem - or the problem's symptom - is a computer that boots up into Setup Assistant. And if you work your way through the setup, it then prompts you to start the same process all over again.
I attended a meeting of a local Apple club tonight. By chance, I met someone who had heard about the "setup assistant loop" problem. He showed me a web page that discusses it. Apparently, one problem is a missing invisible file. The catch: If this invisible file is missing, where do you get a copy of it to use as a replacement?
Anyway, I'm heading to the Apple Store tomorrow to see if they can solve that problem.

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    etresoft wrote:
    SMS5572 wrote:
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    Message was edited by: Pondini

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