Can not take ownership in order to delete

[karlsnooks]

Good People, I already had Win 7 RC on my laptop. I installed Win 7 RTM. After install, I had, as to be expected, a c:\windows.old folder. Using cleanmgr.exe and all other ideas, I deleted \windows.old. I can not completely delete because there are two files which claim that the owner is unknown and that to take owership i must be "karl-pc\karl" I log on as karl-pc\karl (a member of the administrator's grooup) and still get told that I can not delete because I must be karl-pc\karl. Alas, that's precisely how I'm logged on. I can not take ownership in order to delete. To rule out any repeated operator malfunction, I downloaded and installed the "take-ownership" reg file to add that option to the right-click menu. Still no luck. I created the computer administrator account and logged on as such. I still can not take ownership in order to delete the troublesome files in windows.old. There are two files there that are very stubborn. I have taken ownership, changed ownership, changed permissions on files and folders numerous times so am familiar with the process. Any ideas as to how I can take-ownership and/or delete the pesky files? Thanks, Karl

 

[Snufffed]

More than likely some of the files are tied in with some hidden files.
open folder options, show all hidden files and folders.
on ea file folder insure that you are OWNER. several ways to do this.
once you own the file folder change the name. then you can delete it very easly.

 

[Sassa]

You should try to delete from safe mode.
I'm only guessing, but it's worth to try...
And of course try Snuffy's idea first...

 

[karlsnooks]

Snuffy, Been there, Done that. Karl

More than likely some of the files are tied in with some hidden files.
open folder options, show all hidden files and folders.
on ea file folder insure that you are OWNER. several ways to do this.
once you own the file folder change the name. then you can delete it very easly.

 

[karlsnooks]

Serbia, Been there. Done that. Karl

You should try to delete from safe mode.
I'm only guessing, but it's worth to try...
And of course try Snuffy's idea first...

 

[Snufffed]

you might snip a pic of what you can not delete. and post. strange to me but I do understand it can happen.

 

[karlsnooks]

Serbia, Success at last! I remembered that although I'd tried in safe mode from a normal administrators account to take ownership and/or delete, I'd not tried the same from the computer administator account. What worked: Safe mode | log into the Computer Administrator account | run cmd.exe as Adminstrator | using good ol' dos commands, deleted the troublesome files then deleted the entire \windows.old folder and subfolders. Still don't understand why the normal take-ownership and change permissions operations would not succeed under either a normal administrator account or under the computer administrator account. In case any one wonders, with secpol.msc you can enable/disable your computer administrator account. You can also use net use adminstrator enable or net use administrator disable to enable/disable respectively. Thanks, Karl

You should try to delete from safe mode.
I'm only guessing, but it's worth to try...
And of course try Snuffy's idea first...

 

[Sassa]

Points to me!!!