"Windows.old" - Do I need it ?

tommy3 · 31 Oct 2011

I couldn’t sort out my Win Update properly (it wouldn’t install SP1) on my laptop.
In the end, I decided to do a new Win-7 install. This did enable me to install SP1, but as I didn’t have a cure, I’m expecting something similar in the future.

Now though, I have folders called windows.old & windows.old.000.

If I have this right, the system puts the ‘old’ version back on, so that we have a copy to go back to if we need to ?
At the moment, this is just a back-up machine, which I am upgrading bit by bit.
In this case, I did a new install, & am putting the few programs that I had installed on, afresh.
Do I actually need windows.old ?
After that, what is windows.old.000 – and do I need that ?

Next quest is “backing-up”, but I’ll start another post.

Cheers all.

Brink · 31 Oct 2011

Hello Tommy,

The C:\Windows.old folder(s) contains folders and files from the previous Windows installation. If there is nothing in it that you would like to copy back into your current installation, then you do not need it. If you would like to delete it to free up the large amount of HDD space it is using, then I would recommend to use OPTION ONE in the tutorial below.

Windows.old Folder - Delete

Hope this helps,
Shawn