Windows 10: Window old directory in C drive

Hi All,

After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 using the free upgrade program from MS, the old windows 7 installation has been moved a folder call Windows.old. I am not sure if this is for reverting back to Windows 7 in case Windows 10 installation fails or for some other reason.
However, this is folder is hogging a very large disk space ( around 36 GB) on my C: drive.
Is there anyway we can remove this without affecting the current Windows 10 installation? Or it needs to be there to refer to some old data?

Note: After upgrade my Windows 10 installation was not very stable, hence I have done a clean installation of Windows 10 on my system.

regards,


:)

 

Error: "To use System Restore, you must specify which Windows installation to restore. Restart this computer, select an operating system, and then select System Restore" on Windows 10

I know this thread is old, but for anyone who might have this question, here's the poop:

rstrui.exe /OFFLINE:C:\Windows

[Note: There is a space only after rstrui.exe]

Replace C with the drive letter where Windows installation is located, if different.

The way I always check is type: C: \

Then: dir

If you see the Users and Program File directories listed, it's C.

If not, check D or E drives.

 

missing files after windows 10 update

I also have missing personal type files from my "Documents" folder. I went to the Windows Old directory on the C Drive and these files are not there. Is there another place I can look? I went through my "trash" and they are not there either.

 

When you did the clean install there was no further need for the Windows.old Folder, that was needed only if you wanted to revert within 30 days of the Upgrade, after the 30 days mine was deleted probably by an update. Don't think a clean install can revert.

 

I'm confused because if you did a clean install then there won't be a windows.old folder. The windows.old folder holds files from the previous OS upgraded from. The first step of a clean install is to erase the previous OS by either formatting or deleting the partition it was on and then installing the new OS to the empty space - thus there is no previous OS to create the windows.old folder from.

In answer to your question - yes, you can delete the windows.old folder without affecting Windows 10 - but you will find it is very difficult to delete. For starters, I recommend taking ownership of it under the security properties, assign yourself full rights to it, and then boot into safe mode and delete it in safe mode.

 

I had a sequence of installed operating sytesms of Windows 10 Enterprise Edition >>> Linux >>> Windows 10 Pro and again Windows 10 business enterprise edition (in which I will note the free trial reset to 90 days). There were THREE Windows folders on the C Drive, two of which were from old Windows 10 installations. Because I am something of a gambler, I deleted the old ones, saving some 40 or so GB. Any file it had a hassle about I told it to skip deleting but almost all the wasted space was removed.

 

You are right, what I meant by a clean install is that I reset my PC from the 'recovery' section in settings that removed the previous installation along with all the applications installed on it.

I will try the steps that you have suggested.