Cannot delete the Windows.old folder

Original title: when starting to write %systemdrive%\ and when write % WinDir % I have a windows.old file. How do I delete this file with the right path and the directory within the hour? When do right click I don't have option and is not simply to remove

The question about the title.

Hello
1. do you reinstall the operating system?
2. If so, was your previous Windows XP operating system?
Windows.Old is created when the operating system is reinstalled. It may contain important data of the installation previous this is why it is advisable to back up the data before you delete the Windows.old folder.
 
Simple is to delete the Windows.old folder using disk cleanup.
 
How can I remove the Windows.old folder?
(Link is mainly for Windows 7, but must also be good for Windows VIsta)
 
Aziz Nadeem - Microsoft Support

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Tags: Windows

Similar Questions

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    I have changed the ownership of the folder but still cannot delete as usual windows can only slow progress.

    The following may help: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/How-do-I-remove-the-Windows-old-folder?

  • Is it safe to delete the Windows.old folder?

    Original title: after you have reinstalled Windows 7, it is safe to delete my window.old files? & one more question...

    It is said during the deletion process if I do this will damage my computer.

    -J' I re installed windows due to a Partition problem earlier, and today I realized that I had these old files from a previous installation (same drive)
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    In addition, my HDD was reduced in size considerably, from more than 50%. (C:). It was 1 to when I got it, but after you have reinstalled Windows because of a problem, I am now made it is 451 GB.
    Thank you in advance.

    Hi Conner,

    Thanks for keeping us posted and share this information with us.

    As Palcouk suggested, you can remove the "Windows.old" folder if you have saved data on the computer.

    It is not possible for the drive to shrink. I would like you to check the amount of space on the hard disk after you remove the Windows.old folder.

    Let us know if you have other questions about Windows in the future. We will be happy to help you.

  • Delete the windows.old folder/files? And what is their purpose?

    Remove the windows.old folder?  What is the purpose of this anyway?

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    Of JoelbX son favorite | Send me an email . "Widget" programs: visit Web sites

  • Why am I unable to delete the windows.old folder

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    Run the Disk Cleanup Wizard. that it removes.

  • Cannot find the Windows.old folder in my drive and therefore not able to go back to XP to 7.

    I read the article on "How to get back to a previous version of Windows" : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971760/
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    The only time where you can roll to an earlier version of Windows during installation is when configuring real itself. He has no other choice after installing Windows 7 to return to your previous installation within the OS itself. You have manually will reinstall it.
    Andre Da Costa http://adacosta.spaces.live.com http://www.activewin.com

  • I can trash the Windows.old folder?

    If I'm happy to stay with Windows 10, I can delete the Windows.old folder? It contains 126 956 and 30.1 GB files.

    If I do not need, could reclaim that space.

    Hello:

    If you are absolutely sure you don't need all the files in this folder and that you're absolutely sure that you do not want to return to your previous operating system (or you have recovery discs that can give in any case), then Yes you can delete the Windows.old folder.

    Here's how...

    Run the disk cleanup utility.  Let him do the disk cleanup window.

    Then on the left side of the bottom of the window, click clean up system files.

    Then he turns again and arrives at the disk cleanup window, and you can check all the boxes to remove the files.  One of them will be the windows.old folder.

  • Is it safe to restore the Windows.old folder?

    BACKGROUND:

    I have a Dell Studio 540 in Windows Vista Ultimate which suddenly crashed, then wouldn't restart, saying: "no available boot device." Apparently, the hard drive boot sector had been corrupted. After of the painstaking efforts to save as many as possible training and have unsuccessfully using CHKDSK or Seagate tools to repair the drive, I finally resorted to a clean reinstall using the Dell OEM Windows Vista reinstallation disc. I chose the option to move all old files/folders in a folder Windows.old and I am now able to start Windows. However, all settings prerequisites, programs, files and folders from the previous installation are still in the Windows.old folder. For now, I run a full CHKDSK again (and he says 'Corrupt file attribute Deleting the file record segment X X' so I hope that some repairs happens)...
    But what I would do, if possible and if it will not cause problems, use the instructions in this MS support article "how to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista." But before I do that, my question is the following:
    QUESTION:
    If I had to do a reinstall of Vista due to damage/corruption of the hard drive, and if all what information has been moved to the folder Windows.old during this process, is it possible that restore the folder Windows.old to the previous installation would restore any damage/corruption existed, thus causing the problem to return or make things worse? Or should I not worry about the restoration of the old "problem"?

    Hello

    You can use the restore feature if the previous installation was good.

    It is not in your case; If this isn't an option for you.

    You can use the windows.old folder to retrieve your data.

    http://support.Microsoft.com/kb/932912

    But the programs must be reinstalled form the original media.

    And when you're done with the windows.olf folder you can delete.

    "How to use the disk cleanup feature to delete the Windows.old folder after you install Windows Vista"

    http://support.Microsoft.com/kb/930527

    And it is perhaps an idea to run Dell Diagnostics and eventually replace your drive hard if it comes up with errors.

    http://support.Dell.com/support/eDOCS/systems/WS340/en/UG/DIAGS.htm

    See you soon.

  • Try to remove the Windows.old folder and receive 0x801F0004 error message.

    Error 0x801F0004, ban the fast i/o for this operation path

    Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 to the custom help, but do not reformat or distribution of the drive... found the orginal ok data and also a windows.old folder... impossible to remove completely this folder, even with hidden files, showing its empty but says 6 files are present... the mistake of deleting I get is... Error 0x801F0004, banning the path of fast i/o for this operation and will not delete the folder.  Any ideas on how to remove the windows.old folder?  Windows 7 works very well, if not more quickly then Vista.

    Hi L111,.

    Welcome to the Microsoft Answers site!

    Try the following steps to delete the windows.old folder.

    1. open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Disk Cleanup, and then in the list of results, click Disk Cleanup.

    If you are prompted to choose a drive, click the drive that you installed Windows, and then click OK.

    2. in the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, click clean up system files.

    If you are prompted to choose a drive, click the drive that you installed Windows, and then click OK.

    3. Select the Previous Windows installations check box and the other check boxes for files that you want to remove, and then click OK.

    4. in the message that appears, click delete files.

    http://Windows.Microsoft.com/en-us/Windows7/how-do-I-remove-the-Windows-old-folder

    Hope this has been helpful.

    Kind regards
    Bindu S - Microsoft Support
    Visit our Microsoft answers feedback Forum and let us know what you think

  • Hello... can I remove the windows.old folder?

    IM installing my windows 8 from the installation of costum (im not not formatting my hard drives).
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    Hello

    Thanks for posting your question in the Microsoft Community Forums.

    No need to worry, we're here to help you and guide you in the right direction.

    The windows.old folder is the old system files. Be sure to copy all the files that you can out of the Windows.old folder before you delete it. Once deleted, they are gone. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps.

    The Windows.old folder contains the following folders:

    • Windows
    • "Documents and Settings".
    • "Program Files."

    The Windows folder stores mainly programs and files that are required to run the previous version of Windows.

    The "Documents and Settings" folder stores mainly the 'My Documents' folder and the Favorites folder. In addition, the "Documents and Settings" folder stores the office files that have been used by the previous version of Windows.

    The "Program Files" folder stores mainly programs have been installed on the earlier version of Windows.

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    Method 1: Delete the C drive.

    (a) open Windows Explorer, click computer.

    (b) select C drive and you will find the Windows.old folder.

    (c) make a right click on the folder and click Remove.

     

    Method 2: Remove the "Windows.old" folder using disk cleanup

    (a) open Disk Cleanup by clicking on the button Windows + C to open the bar of charms. Click on the charm of the Search .

    (b) type cleanmgr in Search Applications box in the right pane, and then click cleanmgr.exe (disk cleanup) in the left pane to open it.

    (c) If you are prompted to choose a drive, click the drive that you have just installed Windows on and then click OK.

    (d) in the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, click clean up system files.

    (e) If you are again prompted to choose a drive, click the drive that you have just installed Windows on and then click OK.

    (f) select the Previous Windows installations check box and the other check boxes for files that you want to remove, and then click OK.

    (g) in the message that appears, click delete files.

    Let us know the status of the issue. If you need help, I'll be more than happy to help you.

  • Why Windows 8 allow me to remove the Windows.old folder?

    I upgraded my computer to Windows 7 to Windows 8, a few months ago, when Windows 8 came. It is my understanding that when you perform an upgrade of Windows from one version to the other, it can save a lot of files and folders under the folder Windows.old. And I understand that you can delete the Windows.old folder.

    In other words, I don't think.

    The reason why I do not think it is because whenever I tried to delete Windows.old, it stops for me with this error:

    And when I said to 'Try Again' he begins from the beginning? HE DOES ALL THIS TIME! This should not do this, as I did do procedure on other machines that I've updated and he's NEVER done that, but not on this machine? Why in hell does?

    Hi Rod

    You must use the disk cleanup utility to remove the Windows.old folder. See the following article for step by step instructions.

    How to remove the Windows.old folder

    http://Windows.Microsoft.com/en-us/Windows-8/how-remove-Windows-old-folder

    Concerning

  • I installed windows 7. In the old version of win xp, I got an anti virus, but I cannot replace it in the windows.old folder

    I installed windows 7. In the old version of win xp, I got an anti virus, but I cannot replace it in the windows.old folder

    You cannot extract a whole program from the Windows.old folder, it is used to recover individual files.

    You must reinstall the antivirus from the original media. Most AV programs can be downloaded from the Web

    Consider installing Microsoft's Security Essentials Antivirus program. It is clean, simple and free.

  • Cannot open files in the Windows.old folder.

    Original title: I can't OPEN THE FILES IN THE C:\WINDOWS FOLDER. OLD
     
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    ONE OF HER SHOWS...

    Signature of the problem:
    Problem event name: APPCRASH
    Name of the application: DriveGreen1 - WT.exe
    Application version: 2.2.0.82
    Application timestamp: 4a64d47f
    Fault Module name: DriveGreen1 - WT.exe
    Fault Module Version: 2.2.0.82
    Timestamp of Module error: 4a64d47f
    Exception code: c0000005
    Exception offset: 0002f4a9
    OS version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.2
    Locale ID: 1033
    Additional information 1: 33e3
    More information 2: 33e3088220c0b0cc79609643cfeaa4f6
    Additional information 3: cb01
    Additional information 4: cb01097c2b9f695aa9f8d8260260a959

    Hello

    Thanks for your posting in Microsoft Community

    You have formatted your partition of hole or C only
    You had installed multiple operating systems in Multiple drive.
    This file has not been completely formatted, that's why you found the old folder windows, you will need to format whole drive all the
    To move your personal files from the previous installation of Windows 7 folders, follow these steps:

    1. Locate the Windows.old folder, and open the following folder:

      Users\ directoryUserName
    2. Right-click the Documents folder and then click Rename. Rename the My Documents folder.
    3. Right click on the music folder and then click Rename. Rename the My Music folder.
    4. Right-click the images folder and then click Rename. Rename the folder my pictures.
    5. Press in and hold the CTRL key and click to select all the files in the user folder. Then, press CTRL + X to move the items in the users folder to the Clipboard in Windows 7.
    6. Click Start

      and then click the user name in the upper right of the start menu.

    7. Click on paste.

    More information visit the site

    http://support.Microsoft.com/kb/932912

  • I can't delete my Windows.old folder because of file permissions.

    I have a h8-1000z HP running Windows 8 Pro (a domestic installation). I recently cloned just my hard drive to a Hitachi 1 TB to a 120 GB Intel SSD Cherryville. Such a small disc, I'm looking to get as much room I can release. My windows.old folder is about 10 GB of space lost at the moment. I tried to adjust the ownership of the folder and the files contained in conjunction with change permissions. My account is an administrator account, but even when I adjust the permissions to allow full access to the admins, I always get the following error message:

    File access denied
    You need permission to perform this action
    You need authorization of josh-HP\Administrators to make changes to this file.
    (josh-HP is the name of my rig).
    I tried to give permissions to users, administrator, administrators, and all, but nothing seems to work. I even tried to delete the file in safe mode, nothing works. If anyone has any recommendations he could do, my ears are large open.
    Josh Cunningham
    Student and Tech Junky

    Hello

    How to remove the Windows.old folder
    http://Windows.Microsoft.com/en-us/Windows-8/how-remove-Windows-old-folder

    How to remove the "Windows.old" folder in Windows 8 (several methods)
    http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2527-Windows-old-folder-delete-Windows-8-a.html

    How to recover files from the Windows.old folder
    http://Windows.Microsoft.com/en-us/Windows-8/restore-files-upgrade-Windows-old

    ================================

    If necessary:

    1. open a command prompt (Admin)

    Since the office - key Windows + X, or right-click in the lower left-
    Command prompt (Admin); OR in the screen start just start typing CMD
    or in the Menu of charms - research - Apps - CMD-> and right-click on it.
    then on low screen "Run as Administrator".

    2 prompt probably like C:\Windows\System32 >

    This type at the prompt, and then press ENTER.

    CD\

    Now, the line should look like C:\ >

    3: This type at the prompt, and then press ENTER.

    Windows.old DIR

    Should resemble C:\>DIR Windows.old

    It should return

    C:\Windows.old directory

    and view the contents of Windows.old

    It's just to make sure that the Windows.old folder is under C: (drive C) - if she does not STOP

    4 this type at the prompt, and then press ENTER.

    Attrib - r - / s has s h Windows.old

    Should look like C:\>Attrib/s - r - a s h Windows.old
    (there are SPACES between Attrib and / s and r - and - a and -s-h and Windows.old)

    He should return to the prompt C:\ if it shows and ERROR and STOP - then check the command
    and if it has been entered correctly you are not in the right place.

    5 this type at the prompt, and then press ENTER.

    RD/s Windows.old

    Should resemble C:\>RD/s Windows.old
    (there are SPACES between the RD /s and Windows.old)

    Return Windows.old, are your sure Y/N Y type

    (If you get a message that you have no property rights then type this command
    "and press ENTER.)

    TAKEOWN /f Windows.old/a/r

    and repeat step 5 - were you using an elevated command prompt?

    6: This type at the prompt, and then press ENTER.

    Windows.old DIR

    Should look like C:\>DIR Windows.old - and press ENTER.

    It should return

    Directory of C:\

    File not found

    Which confirms that it is gone.

    7 close the COMMAND window

    I hope this helps.

    Rob Brown - Microsoft MVP<- profile="" -="" windows="" expert="" -="" consumer="" :="" bicycle=""><- mark="" twain="" said="" it="">

  • files and folders in the windows.old folder missing

    Recently, I updated my windows 8. (a day and a half)

    Today I was moving the content in the folder windows.old to the other locations, (4 ~ 5 h ago)

    Suddenly, after the computer has restarted, the content in the windows.old folder disappeared except for users and windows folders.

    I copy the files from windows.old/Program files and I don't know that I do not delete the folder by myself.

    I read previous posting on similar problems, but that's because they kept their too long files or their disk space was not enough.

    But I have enough space in my C drive and just refreshed 1 ~ 2 days ago.

    I did not drive or any cleaning that is.

    It is unreasonable to a system to remove the backup files after a few days without noticing.

    Please let me know how to solve this problem and to recover these files.

    There are a lot of files in the previous program files, I need to recover the precious.

    Hi Junwhan,

    Thanks for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

    I can understand the importance of data could be in the Windows.old folder and we regret the inconvenience.

    Yes, Windows 8 has a new timer feature which will automatically delete Windows.old files after a period of 4 weeks since the upgrade. The idea is to avoid the waste of space giving you plenty of time to get what you need out of the folder and delete those that sit for months or even years.

    Since it's just been 1-2 days of update process, you can activate the "hidden objects" to see if the Windows.old files appear.

    As you open the file Explorer, click view and check the hidden items

    In addition, if you use third-party antivirus program control the log of activities see if there is any action taken at the time where the files have disappeared.  Most of the antivirus program automatically deletes the default files. You can change these settings, however, it is not recommended.

    If you use the default, Windows Defender (WD) on Windows 8.1 then WD has real-time analysis allow by default. Refer to this link: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/wiki/protect_defender-protect_start/windows-defender-on-windows-8-introduction-and/f1e00106-6687-4efe-9ec0-ed9f72fabb92

    Check the history of Windows Defender:

    1. Type of user interface modern Windows defender.

    2. Click Windows Defender.

    3. Click the history tab, and then click Details.

    4. Check Date and time if you find any virus.

    Note: The data files that are infected must be cleaned only by removing the file completely, which means that there is a risk of data loss.

    Hope this information is useful. Please feel free to answer in the case where you are facing in the future other problems with Windows.

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