how do i clean hard drive after windows 7 reinstall

Did you do a "clean install"?

Do you have a "windows.old" folder on your hard drive. If you do, it's probably large.

How large is your hard drive and how much space is left?

Not sure what you mean by "all my files were gone". Are you missing something?

Did you format the install partition before installing 7 ?

If C:\Windows.old exist then all your files are there. Recover them before you get rid of Windows .old.

LINDA6 said:

i did locate c:/windows.old, my pictures and documents are not there but old files are. can i just delete them since i reinstalled windows 7 ? i did not know how to format. what is meant by a clean install? thank you all for your help

You said in your first post "all my files were gone".

Clarify what that means.

Are you STILL missing any files?

What are your CURRENT problems--just a lack of space? Or also missing files? Or?

There's no reason to keep windows.old IF things are running OK and you have all your files.

A clean install involves deleting ALL partitions during the installation process. It's not a requirement if you are satisfied with things the way they are now.

Regarding your lost pictures and documents:

Have you looked thoroughly in windows.old?


It's not an "old windows file". It's a "windows.old" folder.

In a typical PC, picture and documents would be somewhere inside the Users folder, somewhere like this:

C:\Users\your-user-name-whatever-it-is\my documents

or

C:\Users\your-user-name-whatever-it-is\my pictures

That Users folder should be inside windows.old somewhere.
I'd look for a "my pictures" or "my documents" folder somewhere inside windows.old.

Once you are ABSOLUTELY positive your missing files are not in the windows.old folder, you can delete it and regain all of that space, which is likely a lot of space. But we're not sure you are absolutely positive. Yet.

Can you remember the EXACT file name of any of your missing files?

ignatzatsonic said:

LINDA6 said:

i did locate c:/windows.old, my pictures and documents are not there but old files are. can i just delete them since i reinstalled windows 7 ? i did not know how to format. what is meant by a clean install? thank you all for your help

You said in your first post "all my files were gone".

Clarify what that means.

Are you STILL missing any files?

What are your CURRENT problems--just a lack of space? Or also missing files? Or?

There's no reason to keep windows.old IF things are running OK and you have all your files.

A clean install involves deleting ALL partitions during the installation process. It's not a requirement if you are satisfied with things the way they are now.

You don`t have to delete ALL the partitions to do a clean install, you just format the install partition.