Deleting windows folder from D drive

darkhunter139

Supreme [H]ardness
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I have an old windows 7 install on my D drive I never bothered to remove when upgrading to an SSD but now I want to delete it. I am having the hardest time figuring out how to do this. It keeps saying requires permission from trusted install and I cant figure out how to get around that. Any suggestions?
 
Take Ownership. Right Click on Folder->Properties->Security->Advanced->Owner->Edit, Select your username, and check the "Replace the owner on subcontainers and objects" box and click OK, then try deleting it.
 
it let me get rid of a few files now but there is still 6 gigs worth of stuff left in there that it wont let me touch.
 
Grrr rageeeeeeeeeee its still not working.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! This is annoying haha.
 
Have you tried safe mode?


Alternatively: (dangerous)
1) place file named "oldWindows.txt" at the root of your D: drive
2) boot to Windows install disc and get to the drive selection windows (don't do anything in the installer past this).
3) hit shift -F10 to bring up a command prompt and find the drive with "oldWindows.txt" in the root. (it won't necessarily be D:)
4) delete the Windows folder on that drive
5) reboot
 
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Grrr rageeeeeeeeeee its still not working.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! This is annoying haha.

After you take ownership, make sure you grant yourself rights to the files and folders. Hit the advanced tab on the permissions and check the box to force it to apply to all subfolders, too...

Honestly -- if the access control list (ACL) is all fubar, then it's probably going to be easier to just boot to a linux live CD, mount the drive and delete the folder. You won't have to worry about permissions that way, but if you're trying to learn about NTFS permissions, straightening it out is some good practice! :)
 
After messing around with the permissions for a while I was able to get rid of everything in there except a folder called "SysWOW64". I am positive I have ownership and full permissions of the folder but it still wont let me delete it...ahh well I am going to boot a linux cd as suggested and delete it.

Thanks.
 
Download a copy of Gparted/Parted Magic (Linux), burn it to a CD/DVD and make it bootable. Set your BIOS to boot from CD/DVD and boot into it and you can do pretty much anything to your HDD. Also works well for doing a Secure Erase on SSD's for non-Intel versions or for an SSD that contains your OS.
 
I'm not 100% sure on this, but Unlocker may be able to do it.
 
Not 100% sure, but can't you just start the process for a brand new Windows install and then have it kill off that partition completely and create another one? Once you do that, hit reset (before it installs Windows) and you should be able to use the whole drive again.
 
Has anyone had any luck with unlocker in windows 7? It never worked for me.
 
Click on Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disc Cleanup

When the dialog box comes up, select the drive that has the .old files on it and click OK

The system then scans for the files to be cleaned up and another dialog box opens with the selection. Click on the button labeled Clean up system files at the bottom of that dialog box.

Another dialog box will come up, select the drive again that has the .old files on it. The system will perform another scan for the system files that need to be cleaned up.

After scanning, another dialog box opens up and there you will find a list of check boxes. Scroll through and check on the box labeled Older versions of Windows and click OK .
 
Zoson, for that to work, disk cleanup must be run as an admin, as I stated earlier
 
right click disk cleanup -> run as administrator
 
You can't remove this using disk cleanup. The directory isn't Windows.old, it's just Windows -- as in the OP has two insatllations of windows and wants to make one disappear.
 
Take Ownership. Right Click on Folder->Properties->Security->Advanced->Owner->Edit, Select your username, and check the "Replace the owner on subcontainers and objects" box and click OK, then try deleting it.

You can't remove this using disk cleanup. The directory isn't Windows.old, it's just Windows -- as in the OP has two insatllations of windows and wants to make one disappear.
Ok, in this case, devil22's solution is good, but incomplete:

To take ownership of the folder, right-click it, select Properties > Security Tab > Advanced at the bottom > Owner Tab > Edit > Highlight your username and put a tick in ‘Replace owner on sub containers…’ and Apply > OK. You will only have the ‘Replace owner on subcontainers…’ box for folders not files. Click Yes when you receive the Security pop-up window then click OK to the Close/Reopen message.

Now here's the missing step:

Now go back to the Properties > Security Tab. Click Edit > Add. Type in your User Account Name in the box under Enter the objects name to select. Click on Check Names > OK. Click on your User Account Name to highlight it. Check the box for Full Control > Apply and OK etc.
 
i know this is an old thread but i was having this problem and after reading this thread i had an idea. I changed the name of the folder to Windows.old, now i am able to use disk cleanup to remove the folder and all the contents
 
dbiker207,

That worked like a champ!

I installed Win7/64 on a new 256Gb SSD and changed the original config from a 1TB spinner cached via IRST/RAID with a 64GB Corsair M4 that had become disfunctional. I was left with the old Win7 installation on the original spinner and couldn't figure out how to dump those GBs of useless files.

Thanks.
 
Another option would have been to boot using a linux boot disk, after that you can delete whatever you want from your windows drive, even the active windows folder :D
 
Another option would have been to boot using a linux boot disk, after that you can delete whatever you want from your windows drive, even the active windows folder :D

I do this often (home and work) when windows prevents me from deleting some files

Boot a linux live USB stick and delete the files without needing to take ownership or fight OS protection.
 
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