Windows 7: Cannot remove previous Win 7 install.

Recently I upgraded my computer by installing a new SSD as my C: main system drive.
I did a fresh install of Win 7 on the new SSD.
The old HD still has the old copy of Win 7 on it.
I want to but cannot remove / delete the old Win 7 folder from the old HD.
I have tried all suggested techniques - turned of UAC, taken ownership of the folder, etc. but nothing works.
No matter what I do I always get the "you will need permission from the administartor", etc. - and I cannot delete the folder.

Any ideas?

Not clear how you did the new install.

Is the 7 partition on the old HD showing up as "system" in disk management?

Your bootmgr is probably on the HDD since you probably did not disconnect the HDD when you installed on the SSD.

You can test that easily. Disconnect the HDD and try to boot from the SSD. I bet you will get a "bootmgr missing".

If you manage to erase the partitions on the HDD, your system will not boot any more. Post a screenshot of your full disk management page so that we can tell for certain what is going on.

The correct way to delete an OS is in Disk Management, after making sure it is not holding the System Boot Files for the current OS.

Please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Management drive map with listings, using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu. Screen Shots.

Tell us what is on each partition and we will give you the steps to safely remove the old installation.

this is a screenshot of my computer - it looks to me that all system critical files are on the C: drive where they should be.

Pretty messy:

1. on partition 'Z' Disk0 you have a bootmgr. How did that get there and is there a dependency with your C - in other words did you ever boot from the SSD with disk0 disconnected

2. the SSD looks OK, at least from the surface

3. disk3 has all dynamic volumes. I assume it is there where you want to delete a partition. Suggest you first reconvert those to basic volumes: http://www.bestshareware.net/howto/convert-dynamic-disk-to-basic-disk.htm

So which drive are you trying to format ?

if the Z: partition has bootmgr on it, it must have been a leftover when that hard drive had the OS on it.
should I remove (if possible) the bootmgr from that drive - it is only a storage drive at the moment.
as to disk 3 - it's not that I even want to delete a partition - I just wand to be able to delete files/folders from the partition.
is the fact that that disk is all dynamic a problem? or is it limited in it's functionality?

AddRAM - not trying to format any disk - just trying to have control of / access to the files / folders on any given drive / partition.

1. The bootmgr on 'Z' is not really a problem. But it probably does not hurt to remove it. I was just wondering how it got there.

2. The dynamic partitions are a bigger problem. There is a lot to be said about dynamics. I suggest you read up on it on the web starting with the link I gave you. They got there when you defined a 5th partition when you had 4 primaries. Next time convert one primary into a logical first so that you start out with only 3 primaries max.

I would convert the primaries to simple partitions. They can give you all kinds of problems - e.g. access.

thanks for all the help whs.

here's a side observation that i just made based on what you have said about dynamic disks. this may / may not be related but it is curious:

when booting up the computer the post does not show this drive in the normal place with the other drives.
the drive is listed on a different post page and is highlighted in bright green (a Gigabyte thing I guess).
could that be because it is a dynamic disk?