Windows.old trying to remove it but is complicated.

[igugf]

I have tried to remove my windows.old because is using 30GB of storage. First it dident got "Scanned" in Diskcleanup or over the settings menu over Windows Settings so I gave myself ownership over the propertys tab and now is in the Trashbin but actually not. Its like "Ghost data". I used Wiztree to confirm it and it still there. I can even open it over it. 

My Specs are:

• Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
• X570 Aorus Elite
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• 2x8GB Corsair RAM 
• GTX 1080 Ti

 

[lewdicrous]

It's complicated 'cause you've tried to remove it in a complicated way.

From Microsoft:

Quote

1. Press the Windows logo key on your keyboard, then select Settings > System > Storage.
2. Under your hard drive information, select Temporary files.
3. Select the Previous version of Windows check box, and then select Remove files.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/delete-your-previous-version-of-windows-f8b26680-e083-c710-b757-7567d69dbb74

 

[igugf]

2 minutes ago, lewdicrous said:

It's complicated 'cause you've tried to remove it in a complicated way.

From Microsoft:

 

I tried that it dident show up in the temp files tab.

[191x7]

10 minutes ago, igugf said:

I tried that it dident show up in the temp files tab.

With Admin rights?

[igugf]

3 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

With Admin rights?

Yes

[lewdicrous]

8 minutes ago, igugf said:

I tried that it dident show up in the temp files tab.

The two ways I know are either by using Diskclean Up or the Temporary Files in settings.

There may be a way to do it through CMD, but that's while it's still in the Local Disk.

[maksakal]

Just use the built-in Microsoft disk cleanup and select previous windows installation(s).

Depending on your language it's named differently in the menu but you can find the executable under %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe

I ussualy tick all the options and clean everything, ussualy a few GB's worth. Be carefull, older versions which were in Windows 10 and back used to delete the Downloads folder by default too. Is removed in newer versions but just be sure to untick the option if it's there and you have downloaded files you want to keep.

[igugf]

2 minutes ago, maksakal said:

Just use the built-in Microsoft disk cleanup and select previous windows installation(s).

Depending on your language it's named differently in the menu but you can find the executable under %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe

As I sayed already it dosent get scaned aka it dosent show up in there. So I searched for other solutions.

[maksakal]

11 minutes ago, igugf said:

As I sayed already it dosent get scaned aka it dosent show up in there. So I searched for other solutions.

Seems like a rights problem to me, you somehow messed up the rights of the files. The files are still there because they are owned by another user.

 

The easiest way would be to login as that user and empty the recycle bin. If that is not possible then do this, it will take ownership of the recycle bin, grant rights to everyone, remove system and hidden attributes and finally delete the complete folder. Don't worry about deleting the folder Windows will create a new one when you delete files again.

Try taking ownership of all the files. Open a command prompt as administrator and try these commands.

takeown /F "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /R /D Y
icacls "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /grant Everyone:(OI)(CI)(F) /T
attrib -R -S -H "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /S /D
rmdir /S /Q "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN"

 

 

[igugf]

On 6/24/2023 at 10:07 PM, maksakal said:

Seems like a rights problem to me, you somehow messed up the rights of the files. The files are still there because they are owned by another user.

 

The easiest way would be to login as that user and empty the recycle bin. If that is not possible then do this, it will take ownership of the recycle bin, grant rights to everyone, remove system and hidden attributes and finally delete the complete folder. Don't worry about deleting the folder Windows will create a new one when you delete files again.

Try taking ownership of all the files. Open a command prompt as administrator and try these commands.

takeown /F "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /R /D Y
icacls "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /grant Everyone:(OI)(CI)(F) /T
attrib -R -S -H "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /S /D
rmdir /S /Q "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN"

 

 

Sorry for the long inactivity but I have run this command multiple times and it got reduced to 8,2 GB. In CMD is says denied access for the rest but atleast progress.

On a side note i needed the german commands but I got mostly around it.

takeown /F "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /R /D J
icacls "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" 
attrib -R -S -H "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN" /S /D
rmdir /S /Q "c:\$RECYCLE.BIN"