Yeah, I agree with you. Especially when they come out with a new one every 3 years. And since Windows is the most popular, they could still make a fortune selling them for $50.
Back to the original problem, I just tried to copy a file in safe mode and it did the same thing.
On a side note, I find this kind of strange. When I right click on a file or folder and go to send to option, the second drive is not listed. The only drives I can send it to is the floppy drive and the dvd drive. IIRC, it has never been an option in XP, Vista or 7, at least not for me anyways.