Full trashcan, but nothing there.

I have a MacBookPro with OS 10.6.8 and a Western Digital 500GB hard drive. The issue is anytime the hard drive is plugged in the trash bin has a file in it that does not exist on the drive. As soon as the drive is removed the trash bin is empty, yet I am unable to remove that file from the trash. How do I remove this file so it does not appear in the trash every time the drive is plugged in? Can this be done without removing everything else from the drive? Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Have you tried emptying the trash when the drive is plugged in? If that does not work, what happens when you plug in the drive, wait for the file to appear in the trash bin, then move it to your system drive?

I tried to empty the trash with the drive plugged in and it will remove all files except one. I put the file on the system drive and the trash bin was empty, but what do I do with it once it is there. I deleted it, but it showed back up in the trash and will not leave. Another point I should have made: the file size is 0kB.

It is an error 36- "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in 'k' could not be read or written."

Possibly useful link on how to delete files from the Trash that are being stubborn:

http://kb.iu.edu/data/abmi.html

I tried the different options from the site, but none of them worked. The file is not locked, so I am not sure where to go from here. I suppose the only other option is to transfer all the data from the drive and clear it, then reload it. Any other options?

If the file is no longer on the external drive, then wiping that drive is not likely to make any difference. You could just put it into the Trash and leave it there.