Windows 10: How to delete C:\Windows.old(1) folder

I had problems with Windows and did a in-place upgrade which took C:\Windows.old and changed it to C:\Windows.old(1) while creating a new C:\Windows.old. Disk Cleanup got rid of C:\Windows.old but how do I get rid of C:\Windows.old(1)?

:)

 

Deletion of Windows.old(1) Folder with Its Content

I have been experiencing a problem to delete C:\windows.old(1) folder with content.

I had no problem with CCleaner utility to delete completely folder windows.old but folder
windows.old(1) is stubborn.

I tried to use Disk Cleanup, CCleaner or even suggested advanced command prompt like takeown /f windows.old(1) /a /r ( taking ownership rights ).

Nothing helps me to delete this folder.

Regards

Moved from : Windows / Windows 10 / Performance & system failures

 

How to Remove Windows Update Ghost Folder

After a major Windows Update that created a "Windows.old" folder, a "Windows.old(1)" folder appeared on the C:\ root. Attempts to delete it yield:

"Could not find this item. This is no longer located in C:\. Verify the item's location an try again."

The folder contains eight 0-sized sub-folders, all of which I can access properties, take ownership, change permissions UNTIL I get to the last file in the chain, "C:\Windows.old(1)\Users\<MyUserName>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState".
On this last folder, the Properties Security tab says "The requested security information is either unavailable or can't be displayed."

• chkdsk C:\ /R does not help.
• FileAssasin does not help (it can't deal with ghost directories, only files).
• Copying "C:\Windows.old\Users\<MyUserName>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState" to the corresponding Windows.old(1) location allows me to delete the copied version (which apparently can't replace the ghost "LocalState")
  but nothing else in the Windows.old(1) directory chain.
• Windows.old(1) does not appear in the registry (according to regedit).

This appears to be an error in the MFT or whatever NTFS mechanism is used to store filename : vector correspondence.

So, how do I fix the index to eliminate the false entry for a non-existent directory chain?

 

Rename it to Windows.old and run Disk Cleanup again??

 

Possible OP has to take ownership or otherwise alter permissions to do that?

 

Tried taking ownership and just tried disk cleanup after renaming to Windows.old, it didn't seem to even see the folder. I can move the folder to other folders but when I look at properties, it shows it has 16 folders but the total size is 0 bytes. Hitting delete claims Windows cannot find file.

 

Delete it in safe mode.

 

If there are files in the windows.old folder(s) they may not be able to be deleted in safe mode. I tried it and get "file in use" errors even though I've taken ownership and changed file permissions as recommended in other threads on this forum. :-(

 

Run "System files clean up" on the drive...

 

You mean with Disk Cleanup, already tried that, no go even if I renamed it back to Windows.old

 

There are no files except it's like 16 folders which starts with Users -> My login and then it keeps going down multiple levels with only one folder and no other files in each one except the last one I has nothing in it:

Users -> Vince -> AppData -> Local -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Temporary Internet Files -> Virtualized -> C -> Users -> Vince -> AppData -> Roaming -> Dropbox -> shellext -> I





Here is what happen if I try to delete:

 

Have you run chkdsk /f C: ?

 

All I did was right click on C:, choose Disk Cleanup, Clean disk once, then do it again, this time choose "clean up system files" and it will give you an option to clean and delete the windows.old

 

I'll give the chkdsk /f c: a try which is scheduled to happen at the next reboot and see what happens. I also had unlocker delete the file on the next reboot.

When I right click on C:. there is no Disk Cleanup, I always have to search for Disk Cleanup using Cortana to open it.

 

The easiest way is to make a live Linux Mint CD or USB and just permanently delete it from that.