Why did Windows 7 install system files on my secondary internal hard drive?

[randomslider]

My computer has a Seagate 500 GB SATA internal hard drive which has the operating system on it, and also a secondary 80 GB internal Seagate IDE hard drive which I've been dragging files onto as a backup. I wanted to format this 80 GB drive to get a fresh start and use Windows Backup to backup my files. Windows 7 will not format the drive, and it does not see the drive as a backup location because apparently during the clean install of the operating system, Windows put system files onto this secondary drive. Disk Management reports the operating system drive (the 500 GB one) as "Disk 1-Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition. It reports the secondary drive (the 80 GB one I would like to use with Windows Backup) as "Disk 0-System, Active, Primary Partition". Would I most likely have to disconnect the secondary drive and do another clean install of Windows 7, so it puts all files onto the main hard drive and not involve the secondary drive, so I can format the secondary drive and use Windows Backup? Or is there another way to correct this problem without doing a clean install? Thank you for any help!

 

[Hawkeye22]

I beleive that you can disconnect the second drive (80GB) and run a reapir install.

Windows tends to split it's loader and OS onto different drives which usually ends up causing the problem you are now running into. When installing a windows OS, it's best to only have the drive you want windows on connected to the system. This forces windows to use just one drive. After the install is finished, then you can connect any remaining drives.

 

[randomslider]

Best answer selected by randomslider.

 

[randomslider]

I beleive that you can disconnect the second drive (80GB) and run a reapir install.

Windows tends to split it's loader and OS onto different drives which usually ends up causing the problem you are now running into. When installing a windows OS, it's best to only have the drive you want windows on connected to the system. This forces windows to use just one drive. After the install is finished, then you can connect any remaining drives.

Thanks very much for that info. I'll try to run the repair with the 2nd drive disconnected, and I'll let you know. I surely do appreciate your help and advice!