Windos question

I have some vague recollection that there's a way to tell windows to *not* install any of its stuff on any drive but the one it's installed on. If so does anybody remember what it is?

I'm asking because I've now had to fix two boxes because I disconnected a drive that I was using purely for data, only to discover windows wouldn't boot because it'd installed drivers or an update or something on the secondary drive.

I'm assuming Windoze did something like "oh look, this drive has *way* more space than drive C, I'll just install this over there..."