Windows 7 My C isnt my E

[Prettz]

So my system it telling me that I cant use E: to do my system backup.

See attachments for what I am seeing.

(I'm aware that I don't have enough space currently to do a backup but that's not really a relevant issue)

I've been getting this error for almost a month and am getting to the point where I NEED to make a backup.

But it refuses to allow me to select E: even when I have 500+GB free.

OS is installed only on C:

Edit:
No other operating systems installed on any other drives.

No dual boot.

 

[Joe S]

Are you dual booting another OS?
Joe

 

[Prettz]

Edited my initial post to reflect the answer.

No other operating systems installed on any other drives.

No dual boot.

 

[Saltgrass]

First the partition only shows 36 GB free. A system image backup is normally 55-60% of the space used for the install. The attachments appear to show you only have 36 GB free space....

Do you have an external drive, or a network location you could use?

You might attach a Disk Management picture of your drives to help see what might be happening.

 

[Prettz]

Here's the disk management picture.

And like I stated before, this has been an ongoing issue even when I had 500+GB of space free.

I use up about 600-750GB of this drive a week in video editing and then removal of old video after being archived.

With 800GB free I still am completely unable to use drive E: for backup.

 

[Saltgrass]

Are you aware the boot system is on the 1TB drive, which means that partition has to be backed up also. Which means during a re-image the 1 TB drive would also be formatted.

I would make the OS partition (SSD) active in Disk Management. Remove the 1 TB drive and run Startup Repair 3 times. This will set the boot system to the SSD.

Make sure it boots normally and then reconnect the 1 TB. If everything is working OK and the SSD shows as "System" partition, you might think about removing the active status from the System Partition on the 1 TB drive. You will need to use DiskPart or some 3rd party partitioning software. If you leave the active status and the 1 TB drive is set to primary in the bios, it will boot to that partition, thereby forcing the 1 TB drive to be part of the image.

But your Disk Management picture shows you only have 4% of the space free in that partition.......?

 

[Prettz]

Are you aware the boot system is on the 1TB drive

It clearly isn't! The C: Drive is the only drive with a /windows/ directory.

I would make the OS partition (SSD) active in Disk Management. Remove the 1 TB drive and run Startup Repair 3 times. This will set the boot system to the SSD.

This I can do. Although I don't have a solid state drive(ssd?).

 

[Saltgrass]

All I might suggest, if you do not believe me, is to disconnect the 1 TB drive and try booting.

What type of drive is the smaller drive?

If you do, when you reconnect it, make sure it shows primary in the bios. It will normally be set to secondary after an attempted boot without it present.

 

[Prettz]

All I might suggest, if you do not believe me, is to disconnect the 1 TB drive and try booting.

It's not that I don't believe you. It's just the file structure staring at me goes against any inkling of needing the 1 TB drive to boot.

But my computer will not boot if it's removed. >_<

This doesn't make ANY sense.

The 1 TB drive wasnt even CONNECTED when I installed windows on this machine.

What type of drive is the smaller drive?

Small Drive: Newegg.com - Western Digital WD Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Large Drive: Newegg.com - Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

[Saltgrass]

The 1 TB drive wasn't even CONNECTED when I installed windows on this machine.

Hard to explain the end results, but in fact, the boot files are on the large drive.

My first suggestion still holds. Do a Startup Repair on the small drive after making that partition active.

But Windows is a little odd. It designates a partition with the boot files "System" and a partition with the OS files "boot".

Did you ever find out what was filling up your large drive? Recycle Bin empty?

 

[Prettz]

Hard to explain the end results, but in fact, the boot files are on the large drive.

You're telling me!

My first suggestion still holds. Do a Startup Repair on the small drive after making that partition active.

How do I make the partition active? How do I do a startup repair?

Did you ever find out what was filling up your large drive? Recycle Bin empty?

I use up about 600-750GB of this drive a week in video editing and then removal of old video after being archived.

I'll have 650GB archived tomorrow.

 

[Saltgrass]

You make a partition active by opening Disk Management and selecting the partition and select Mark as active. There can only be one per hard drive, and if you need to set it to inactive, you have to use Diskpart from an administrative command prompt.

Remember, if you run into problems, just reinstall the large drive and set it to primary in the bios and the system will boot from it like it is doing now.