Windows – How to delete Windows.old in Windows

windowswindows 7

I used to run Windows 7 32 bit, but installed the 64 bit version because of a RAM upgrade. During the installation I got this message:

The partition you selected might contain files from a previous Windows installation. If it does, these files and folders will be moved to a folder named Windows.old. You will be able to access the information in Windows.old, but you will not be able to use your previous version of Windows.

The C:\ drive now has two (2) Windows folders:

  1. Windows (15.3 GB)
  2. Windows.old (15.7 GB)

screenshot showing windows.old folder

Don't see why I need the Windows.old taking over 15GB of space on my hard drive so I tried to delete it. It didn't work.

How can I safely delete this folder?

Best Answer

The only reason you might need to keep the "Windows.Old" folder is if it contains files (bookmarks, settings, etc.) from your old Windows installation that you don't have backed up elsewhere or haven't already extracted. If so, I suggest that you do that now.

The reason you have been unsuccessful in trying to delete the "Windows.Old" folder is because you were trying to do it from Windows Explorer. Apparently this is forbidden. The steps that you need to follow to delete this folder are listed here (note that you may have to run Disk Cleanup as an Administrator—right-click on the shortcut and then on "Run as Administrator"):

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're prompted to choose a drive, click the drive you just installed Windows on, and then click OK.

2. In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, click Clean up system files.

If you're again prompted to choose a drive, click the drive you just installed Windows on, and then click OK.

3. Select the Previous Windows installation(s) check box, and any other check boxes for the files you want to delete, and then click OK.

In the message that appears, click Delete Files.

If you're a command line junkie, you can also take ownership of the folder using takeown, but if you're really a command line junkie, you already knew this.

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