Vista - Deleting program files

Hello, I recently had to reformat my computer, but saved basically all of my old computer in the folder windows.old before doing so. Now that I wiped my drive and reinstalled vista, I want to get rid of that windows.old folder because it is huge and I don't use it anymore, but I can't get clearance to delete or move it to an external hard drive. Can you tell me a way to override this please? Thank you!

You first need to have full adminstrative access and take ownership of the large directory. It's likely set as to read only in the properties which would need to be unchecked once you have attained the permissions. One guide for manually deleting the Windows.old folder sees commands entered at the command prompt option for that.

Deleting the windows.old folder manually

1) Open an elevated command prompt

• Click start
• Type: cmd
• right-click it under programs
• click Run As Administrator

2) Take ownership

• Change the directory to the windows.old folder (e.g. cd c:\windows.old)
• Type: takeown /F . /A /R /D Y > NUL

3) grant yourself permission

• Type: icacls . /grant:r AdministratorsF) /T /L /Q

4) Delete everything
How do I delete the hidden windows.old folder?

When I try to delete it now, it tells me that I cannot delete that file because it is being shared with other people. I'm not sure why that is, how can I override that? Thank you again for your help.

The only way it could being shared would be some process in Windows still accessing the main folder for some reason. Well our good friends at sourceforge.net have another option with that being the WinDirStat you can grab at SourceForge.net: WinDirStat: Windows Directory Statistics

Another option when locked out by Windows would be booting from a live Linux distro if you just happen to have one on cd. But the first there sees a delete option to try out.

amadeusmozart wrote:
Windows.old contains your previous XP installation. It is difficult to
remove it manually so let Vista do the work for you.

1. Click Start
2. Select All Programs
3. Select Accessories
4. Click System Tools
5. Pick Disc Cleanup
6. Select Files from all users on this computer
7. Confirm the UAC
8. Select the drive that contains your old installation
9. One of the options will be to delete your old installation. Select it and
let the Disc Cleanup Utility do its thing.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Thanks, disc cleanup took care of the windows.old folder for me, but the technician also had me create two other folders, Windows.Vista and Program Files.Vista, in case I needed to access them following me reinstalling Vista. I do not need them since I have a new Program Files and Windows folder, but it tells me again that I need permission to delete them too, but disc cleanup did not take care of them. Is there a way to make disc cleanup get rid of this, too?

amadeusmozart wrote:
I doubt it since Disk Cleanup was built to detect windows.old and not some
other windows.* folder. I'd take ownership of those folders and try and
delete them in Safe Mode. Or do as suggested by the other poster and delete
them from a rescue CD such as a Linux Live CD or a Bart's PE. Or ask the
mysterious technician who had you create the folders to get rid of them for
you.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

When I take ownership of the file as Night Hawk suggested, I enter the final two commands as:

• ype: cd ..
• Type: rmdir /S /Q Windows.Vista

But it tells me it can't find the file, even though it is in the same place the windows.old folder was. I don't know if what I'm saying is making any sense, but I just want to get rid of those two folders because they total over 20 gb together and I just wanted to clear that clutter. Can you tell me what it is I am doing incorrectly in taking ownership of the file?

Try using Unlocker: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/



amadeusmozart wrote:

Another tool I came across for getting rid of problem files is a simple registry mod that adds the TakeOwnership option to the right click menu in XP as well as Vista and even on 7. Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Vista :: the How-To Geek

For a split second you see a command prompt appear and disappear as the attributes and permissions are changed on the file or folder selected. Due to the size of the Windows.old folder as mailke pointed out earlier you can go into it first and select the Windows, users, or Program Files directories first to see each one deleted in order to reduce the volume before seeing the entire folder gone for good.