'windows.old' file. Can it be deleted?

[walpurgis]

Following a recent reinstallation of Windows 7 on my PC, I now have a large 'windows.old' file/folder on 'C' drive that takes up useful space. Can this be safely deleted or is still accessed by the reinstalled OS?

[Clive]

Following a recent reinstallation of Windows 7 on my PC, I now have a large 'windows.old' file/folder on 'C' drive that takes up useful space. Can this be safely deleted or is still accessed by the reinstalled OS?

Do a clean up from device properties, there's a system option or something similar. This deletes it.

[walpurgis]

No, although 'disk cleanup' is accessible from there, it only deletes temporary stuff and won't delete that particular folder. I note that the 'windows.old' folder is marked as 'not shared, so presumably it just sits there redundant. The delete facility is there for it, I just don't want to be hasty and bugger anything up by getting rid of it, but it occupies nearly 20gb and there's nothing in it I need to keep.

[Clive]

No, although 'disk cleanup' is accessible from there, it only deletes temporary stuff and won't delete that particular folder. I note that the 'windows.old' folder is marked as 'not shared, so presumably it just sits there redundant. The delete facility is there for it, I just don't want to be hasty and bugger anything up by getting rid of it, but it occupies nearly 20gb and there's nothing in it I need to keep.
The method I outlined is what I've done sveral times, you'll need admin priv. You need to click on the system files option, or some such thing. I'm on an android tablet, otherwise I'd check the exact details for you.

[Clive]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/how-do-i-remove-the-windows-old-folder

[walpurgis]

Weird!

I tried that and disc cleanup showed that it was incuding 'windows.old' in the cleanup, but when I look into drive 'C' it still shows a folder of 15.9gb under properties.

[walpurgis]

In for a penny, in for a pound!

I've just told the folder to delete itself. If it turns out that it's a source of reference for my current OS installation and the deletion buggers things up, I'll just start from scratch and install an OEM copy of Windows 7 (once again).





A bit later.

Well it's gone now. I just re-booted and everything seems to be running fine (so far). It's certainly freed up a lot of space on drive 'C'. I deliberately have a small HD of only 80gb, so the recovered 16gb or so will be handy.


I'll do a full 'backup' later once I've dug out my USB hard drive.

[Jeff Nikon]

It's just a backup of your old Windows install. If you don't want anything in it you can just delete.

[walpurgis]

Thanks Jeff. The 'Windows Old' folder is long gone. Deleting it caused no problems.