Can't delete second installation of Windows 7.

[Turnyface]

Here is the situation. My roommate wanted to use my computer and instead of asking me for my password, he decided to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on my 2nd hard drive. The problem now is that I cannot delete any of the windows folders (Windows, Users, Program Files, etc.) and it is taking up space on my drive. Also, I can't simply reformat because there are ~ 1TB of movies that I don't want to get rid of. Every time I try and edit permissions, I get a message stating "access denied." I've tried everything from unlocker to killbot to safe mode removal to trying to take ownership in cmd. Nothing works. Any suggestion?

 

[Saltgrass]

You think you could attach a picture of your Disk Management window using the Snipping tool? Try to put labels on the partitions so we can see what is what.

Maybe you could shame your roomage into at least buying you a new hard drive!!

 

[Ztruker]

See this article on how to do this. Download and run the .reg file and a Take Ownership selection is added to the right click context menu. Very nice:

Take Ownership Shortcut - Windows 7

Makes use of the takeown command (C:\Windows\system32\takeown.exe).

 

[theog]

Remove your D: drive & do a start repair 3 or 4 times.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

 

[gregrocker]

If the take ownership shortcut doesn't work to allow you to delete the Programs, Users and Windows folders, then post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map so we can see what complications exist.

Use the Snipping Tool in Start Menu, attaching file using paper clip in reply box.

 

[Turnyface]

After taking ownership, I am able to remove all the folders except "Windows." When I open it up, all the sub-folders have been deleted except for "SysWOW64." I get the following error message. I've also included an image of my disk management.

 

[gregrocker]

Unfortunately, your E: drive has taken the System Active flag and now holds the MBR. It needs to be recovered to Win 7.

In Disk Management, mark Win7 drive Active. Power down. Unplug E: drive. Make sure Win7 HD is first HD set to boot in BIOS, after DVD.

Boot into Win7 DVD, select Repair My Computer on second screen, click through to Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboot to rewrite the MBR to C: drive.

 

[Turnyface]

So I have now removed the System Active flag from my F drive and am still unable to delete the windows file. I have taken ownership with the registry modification. This is where I'm at. Any suggestions?

 

[monkeys breath]

try the following. you may have to do startup repair once you ndo remove the wow folder.

Remove on Reboot Shell Extension Download - Softpedia

 

[gregrocker]

Unfortunately you haven't yet removed the Active flag from E and F drives.

Use free Partition Wizard bootable CD to rightclick>Modify>Set to Inactive both E and F Drives, OK each, then Apply.

 

[Richter]

your roommate is incredibly annoying XD
Can't you simply boot from your second installation? (just wondering bout the obvious) Obviously, if you try to access your second hdd from you first windows installation, you will fail, due to security

 

[Turnyface]

Ok, so now I've marked those drives as "inactive" and am still unable to delete the folder, even after a reboot. Here's a screenshot for confirmation. Any suggestions for the next step? Btw, I really appreciate the help. Thank you

 

[Turnyface]

your roommate is incredibly annoying XD
Can't you simply boot from your second installation? (just wondering bout the obvious) Obviously, if you try to access your second hdd from you first windows installation, you will fail, due to security

My C drive is a SSD. The sole reason for purchasing it was for a boot disk. Everything else is essentially for media.

 

[Turnyface]

Heh. After some messing around, I was able to remove the windows folder. Turned out, I had to remove some unknown account in the "permissions" area of the security settings. Thanks again for all your help!