Windows 10: Deleted user account left behind a HUGE folder (can't delete + itunes)

Hi all,

I'm not at the friend's place at the moment, but wanted to fly this by in the event someone else has had this issue & resolved it. PC is a HP Pavilion Desktop running Win 10 Home v1709. It's an upgrade from Win 7 and was running fine up until a couple of days ago. No new software or hardware installed that might have caused this.

There was a problem with his (the only) user account. It had the old, "start button/taskbar not working properly" + other things going on. Rather than muck about trying to diagnose, I created a 2nd account and that one worked fine.

I backed up the data from acct. 1 to external storage. I then booted to acct. 2 and, through "Control panel>users, deleted acct. 1. It took a little while, but eventually, that acct folder appeared on the desktop as I had chosen to "save the user files". All good.

However, as I was setting up the new user acct., I noticed that the old one was still sitting there under C:\Users. Worse, was when I right-clicked to check it's size: it was still going, at over 600 GB in size, before I decided to cancel the size check. Of course, I cannot access it and I'm concerned about the size being reported. What in the world could be in that folder to report that size? He said the only thing he has of any real size is about 15GB of iTunes music (which is about right, looking at what I had backed up from that account previous to deleting it).

I told the friend I'd stop back this week with a live Linux USB to have a look at it from outside of Windows.

Additionally, when I tried to open iTunes, from the new acct.2, it wouldn't open. I tried to install iTunes again (thinking maybe it's only installed for the deleted acct. 1) and it errored saying something to the effect that it needed to be removed from the other user account? But, that account is now gone, so there's no way to log into it to uninstall iTunes.

Has anyone else here ever seen something like this? Honestly, I'm stumped.

Cheers

:)

 

Deleted account keeps reappearing

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Is it still appearing no matter how you try to delete? I suggest you to follow the steps below to remove user account from your computer, and check if it helps. Try the ones you’re comfortable with.

Step 1: Steps to Remove a User Account in Settings

• 
  Press Windows
  key, click on Settings.
  
• 
  Click on Account, click on
  Family and other users.
  
• 
  Select the user you want to delete under
  Other users and click on Remove.
  
• 
  Accept the UAC (User Account Control) prompt.
  
• 
  Select Delete account and data if you wish to delete account and the data and follow onscreen instructions.
  

Step 2: Steps to Delete a User Account in Command Prompt

• 
  Press Windows + X keys from the keyboard, select
  Command Prompt (Admin).
  
• 
  Type net user and hit Enter
  to list the user accounts on your device.
  
• 
  Type net user "User account”
  /delete and hit Enter to delete the user account.
  

Step 3: Steps to Delete a User Account in Run command.

• 
  Press Windows + R and type netplwiz, press
  Enter.
  
• 
  Select the User account, click on the
  Remove button.
  

Regards.

 

Unable to delete User account on Windows 10, error message "can't delete the account until the user has signed out".

Hello Dave,



Thank you for posting on Microsoft Community.



Along with daycartes suggestion, did you try removing the account from system
Settings page?



I suggest you to check if you are able to remove the account from the
Settings page on the computer. To do so, follow the steps below:

• Press Windows logo + I keys on the keyboard and select
  Accounts from the window.
• From the left side panel, click on Family & other users and check if the account you want to delete is located on the right side panel of the window under
  Your family or Other users.
• If the user account is visible, click on the account name and select
  Remove.
• Follow the on-screen suggestions and check if the user account is deleted.

Write to us with the status of the issue on the same post for further assistance.
Your reply is important for us to ensure we assist you accordingly.



Thank you.