You need to copy and paste the files from the portable medium into a folder on the DAW machine.

Sounds like you are telling the DAW where the tracks are located and it's working with them on the portable drive and never importing them to the computer.

You can work with them like that to save space on the DAW machine, but when you finish, you should then do a SAVE AS and save it to the DAW machine's folder. That way, it only writes the files it needs.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.