Windows.old Folder - Delete

How to Delete the Windows.old Folder in Windows 7​

   Information

If you performed repair install, upgrade install, or a custom install without formatting the drive for a clean install and selected to install Windows 7 on the same partition of the previous Windows installation, then you may have a C:\Windows.old folder left over in your new installation.

If you already had a C:\Windows.old folder in the installation that you performed a repair install, upgrade install, or a custom install on, then it would be renamed to say C:\Windows.old.000 (older previous installation) in addition to the C:\Windows.old folder. The most recent previous installation will always be in the C:\Windows.old folder.

This will show you how to delete the Windows.old folder(s) generated during the installation to free up the hard drive space that the Windows.old folder(s) takes.

   Note

The C:\Windows.old folder contains folders and files from the previous Windows installation. Be sure to copy any files or data that you may still want to keep to another location before deleting this folder.

   Tip

For how to

restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous Windows installation by using the Windows.old folder, see: How to restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous Windows installation by using the Windows.old folder

   Warning

Be sure to copy any files that you want out of the Windows.old folder before you delete it. Once deleted, they are gone.

You must logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

EXAMPLE: Windows.old Folder
NOTE: Notice how much space this folder uses.

OPTION ONE

Delete "Windows.old" Folder Using Disk Cleanup

1. Open Disk Cleanup.
2. If prompted, select the Windows 7 C: drive, and click on OK. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will only see this if you have more than one HDD or partition with a drive letter.

3. Click on the Clean up system files button. (see screenshot below)

4. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

5. Repeat step 2 above.

6. Check the Previous Windows installations box, and click on OK. (see screenshot below)

7. Click on Delete Files. (see screenshot below)

8. When Disk Cleanup finishes, the C:\Windows.old folder(s) will be deleted.

OPTION TWO

Delete "Windows.old" Folder Using Elevated Command Prompt

1. Open a Elevated command prompt.

2. In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste the command below, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you had another say windows.old.000 folder that you also wanted to delete, then you could repeat this command substituting that name instead to also delete it.
RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%\windows.old


3. Close the command prompt.

OPTION THREE

Delete "Windows.old" Folder Using Command Prompt at Boot

NOTE: This would be a good option to do if OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO was unable to delete your C:\Windows.old folder.
1. Open the Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc), and make note of the name (ex: none) and total size (ex: 126 GB) of your Windows 7 drive. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will need to know this in step 3C.

2. Using either you Windows 7 installation DVD or system repair disc, boot to a command prompt at boot (click on link for how).

3. To Verify the Windows 7 Drive Letter at Boot
NOTE: The Windows 7 drive letter may not always be C: at boot like it is while Windows is started, so be sure to verify it's drive letter before doing the command in step 4 for it to work.
A) In the command prompt, type diskpart and press enter. (see screenshot below)

B) In the command prompt, type list volume and press enter. (see screenshot below)

C) From the listed volumes, look for and verify the drive letter (ex: D: ) of your Windows 7 drive (ex: 126 GB w/ no name). (see screenshot below)

D) In the command prompt, type exit and press enter. (see screenshot below)

4. To Delete the "Windows.old" Folder
A) In the command prompt, type the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Be sure to substitute D in the command below with the actual drive letter of your Windows 7 drive as displayed from step 3 above instead. If you had another say windows.old.000 folder that you also want to delete, then you could repeat this command substituting that name instead of Windows.old to also delete it.
RD /S /Q "D:\Windows.old"
B) Close the command prompt window.

5. Click on the Restart button to restart the computer and start Windows 7, and to verify that the Windows.old folder has been deleted.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Restore your Windows.old Folder into a New Installation
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7
• How to Delete a Folder from the Command Prompt
• How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space in Windows 7

 

[Brink]

Shawn,
Thanks. I had meant to say RD rather than delete, which as you pointed out doesn't have the force option.

My real question was whether I could simply by logging in under an administrative account, running cmd as administrator, get rid of windows.old using RD. If I had one on this laptop, I'd try myself. Just didn't know whether this wasn't a feasibility.

Sure, it should also delete the folder unless it had some sort of "in use" or permissions issue. I added it as OPTION TWO to help. If it's not able to, then OPTION THREE should be able to.

 

[karlsnooks]

Shawn,
Thanks. Now I've got to find someone with a windows.old folder who has saved out everything they need and see what damage I can do.
karl

 

[Brink]

LOL. :devil:

 

[pragnesh89]

How safe is this? I didn't realize I have almost 12.4 GB worth of files in the Previous Windows Installation Folder. I think most of those are Vista files though. I can't recall if I ever had XP on my laptop.

 

[Brink]

Hello Pragnesh,

Yes, this will be for the C:\Windows.old folder that contains all the files from your previous installation in it. If there's nothing in there that you would like to copy back into Windows 7, then yes it's perfectly safe to have deleted through Disk Cleanup to regain the HDD space it is taking up.

 

[pragnesh89]

Yeah I'll just do it. I just checked and it's all vista files from about 5 years ago which I definitely do not need because I AM NOT planning to go back to Vista. In any case, all my important files are always backed up, and even if something happens to my computer, I always prefer to do a Clean install and start from scratch.

 

[Brink]

Good deal then.

 

[whatfor]

thanks. got a bit more disc space now

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Wahrfor, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[whatfor]

You're welcome Wahrfor, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Thanks. What a useful place this is for win 7 novices like me

 

[emman1910]

thank you !

with this tutorial I'm upgrading my knowledge faster than ever before!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Emman, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hiyya Shawn the pain is back I have tried Option one nothing in there re old and option 2 I saw only tow aprtitions so went to 3 and found what is inthe pic. The old is in C: and sorry mate but I don't know what to do next as the others are marked empty.

 

[Brink]

Hello John,

You needed to use list volume instead of list disk in diskpart to see the drive letters.

On a more important note though, is that how you wanted your partitions setup with those two separate unallocated spaces on your Disk 0 like that?

Normally, you would delete Disk 0 to make all of it unallocated space, then install Windows 7 to it. Afterwards, you would shrink the Windows 7 partition if you wanted to create any new partitions from it instead.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello John,

You needed to use list volume instead of list disk in diskpart to see the drive letters.

On a more important note though, is that how you wanted your partitions setup with those two separate unallocated spaces on your Disk 0 like that?

Normally, you would delete Disk 0 to make all of it unallocated space, then install Windows 7 to it. Afterwards, you would shrink the Windows 7 partition if you wanted to create any new partitions from it instead.

Ok Shawn I will do that - sorry mate I was trying to rush things before going to work.

I don't know how those partitions came about - I just installed not knowing that the old install would be saved So when I saw how the drive was divided up it came as a complete surprise.

I did also ask in another thread re enabling UEFI and I am not sure but because I had the original install (32bit) in IDE and non UEFI perhaps enabling UEFI and ACHI before this install has completely mucked the whole process up. I did suggest in the other thread too that it may be an idea to completely wipe / erase this drive and start from scratch, just as you have just said, because the UEFI is not working anyway.
I don't have anything of any personal use on it as the machine is my tester and I use it mainly for testing out the free apps and different hardware the like

 

[Max111]

there is no option for cleanup system files in disk cleanup... what to do ??

its showing access denied when i tried to do it from command prompt......any solution ??

 

[Brink]

Hello Max, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you logged in an administrator account? You will not be able to do this as a standard user.

Did you open an elevated command prompt? (right click -> Run as administrator)

 

[Max111]

yes i clicked run as administrator....but nothing happened...

 

[Brink]

Max,

Do you have a C:\Windows.old folder? If so, then you also may try OPTION THREE to delete it at boot.

Did you not get a UAC prompt after clicking on Run as administrator, or a elevated command prompt not open? If not, do you have UAC turned on to at least the default level?

 

[pauLoz]

problems

does removing windows.old file doesn't causes a problem into the current programs into the computer im using?such as a corrupt file?ty sorry for my english