Help removing old Windows & Users folder without breaking anything!

[jimdandy]

Help removing old Windows & Users folder without breaking anything!

Hey Guys!

I know this has been brought up time after time but I've read several threads and it seems like the approach is slightly different depending on the computer configuration. If anyone has time to give me some basic guidance I'd be most appreciative! I'll try to supply all the info requested on other similar threads to make this easier.

Here is my current configuration (feel free to laugh at how full my drives are!):




Scenario: I bought a new SSD (DISK 0) and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 on it. I left the old copy of Windows 7 on the original system drive (DISK 3) in case any of the programs I use for work had problems when re-authorising licenses etc. that way I could just go back to my old setup to get work done.

Before installing Windows 7 on the SSD I switched the hard drives around physically, I put the SSD on DISK 0 and the old system drive on DISK 3. I'm 95% sure I had the old system drive (DISK 3) connected when I installed Windows 7 onto the new SSD (DISK 0).

Basically I want to:

1) Remove the old Windows folder on DISK 3. I've taken ownership of it as per this tutorial but I must be doing something wrong as now it's telling me I need permission from myself?




2) Remove the old Windows folder on DISK 3. Same issue as with the Windows folder.

3) Remove the 'System Reserved' partition (G) from DISK 3. I think I know how to do this but I'm not sure if it's safe to do so with my setup. How do I check if my boot files are on DISK 0 where they should be and not on DISK 3? Also, once I get rid of this partition can/should I then expand the other partition to take up that 100MB?


Unfortunately the data in the F drive on DISK 3 is important and I don't have any other drives to move that data to so that I can format the F drive. Hopefully it is possible to achieve what I have asked above without formatting the F drive?

Again, any help would be most appreciated! Thank you in advance..

 

[AddRAM]

You need to set G: inactive and see if C: will boot. It should. If not just run your disc to do a startup repair.

You should be able to delete it then.

By the way, all this should be done using a partition wizard boot cd. Safer, Easier, Faster.

http://partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

You can`t move your files over to the backup 931 gig temporarily ?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Mark D E G inactive!
In http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

diskpart
sel  vol  d:
inactive
sel  vol  e:
inactive
sel  vol  g:
inactive
sel  vol  z:
inactive
exit

your computer boots from disk0-system reserved! So that's what you want. You can delete G safely

 

[jimdandy]

You need to set G: inactive and see if C: will boot. It should. If not just run your disc to do a startup repair.

You should be able to delete it then.

By the way, all this should be done using a partition wizard boot cd. Safer, Easier, Faster.

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

Thanks AddRAM! I'll give this a try. I don't have a CD drive (the one in my screenshot must be a virtual drive), is using Partition Wizard off a USB drive acceptable?

You can`t move your files over to the backup 931 gig temporarily ?

The backup drive is 99% full!

As soon as I can afford it a new internal drive and a new external backup drive are on the shopping list!

 

[jimdandy]

Mark D E G inactive!
In http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

diskpart
sel  vol  d:
inactive
sel  vol  e:
inactive
sel  vol  g:
inactive
sel  vol  z:
inactive
exit

your computer boots from disk0-system reserved! So that's what you want. You can delete G safely

Thanks so much Kaktussoft!It seems like this might be easier than AddRAM's helpful suggestion so I will try this first.

Thanks to you both for the help!

 

[AddRAM]

I didn`t even notice all the others were active, it`s late !!

Why in the world are they marked active :sarc:

Run the command line and post a new shot of disk mgt.

Fix that 9 MB unallocated while you`re at it.

You can always install partition wizard.

 

[jimdandy]

I didn`t even notice all the others were active, it`s late !!

Why in the world are they marked active :sarc:

Run the command line and post a new shot of disk mgt.

Fix that 9 MB unallocated while you`re at it.

You can always install partition wizard.

Thanks AddRAM, here's an updated screenshot:




* To fix that unallocated 9MB do I extend the partition (drive D)?

* It seems it's definitely safe for me to delete the G drive now also?

* Finally, after using Diskpart to set the drives as inactive as suggested by Kaktussoft I restarted the computer. I then went to try again to remove the Windows and Users folder from the F drive but got the same message as the second screenshot in my OP. Am I doing something wrong or missing something?

Thanks again for any help guys!

 

[AddRAM]

Yes.

Yes.

Not sure. Who is Alpha/Red, the users on that install ?

Have you tried taking ownership of the files ?

 

[Kaktussoft]

* To fix that unallocated 9MB do I extend the partition (drive D)?=>yes do it

* It seems it's definitely safe for me to delete the G drive now also?=>yes do it

 

[Kaktussoft]

Are you logged on as user RED on computer ALPHA? Do you have administrator priviliges?
Does system,admistrator,user etc have any DENY access in folder Windows?

 

[jimdandy]

Not sure. Who is Alpha/Red, the users on that install ?

Yep. Alpha/Red is the only user account on this computer.

Have you tried taking ownership of the files ?

Yep. I used this tutorial. It seems to work when I use it on the Users and Windows folder on F drive. I can see the word 'Success' flash by in the command prompt, and the phrase '...now owned by "Alpha/Red"'.

Are you logged on as user RED on computer ALPHA? Do you have administrator priviliges?

Yep. I'm sure that I have admin privileges, it's the only user account. Here's a screenshot if that helps:

Does system,admistrator,user etc have any DENY access in folder Windows?

No. Every 'group or username' seems to have full access with the exception of 'Special Permissions'. The only 'group or username' that doesn't have full access is the 'CREATOR OWNER' account and the 'TrustedInstaller' account that each only appear on the Windows folder permissions.

Here's the message I get when I try to delete Windows or Users from the F drive:

 

[Kaktussoft]

right click F:\windows , properties, tab security->advanced
Post screenshot
tab owner. Post screenshot as well

 

[jimdandy]

right click F:\windows , properties, tab security->advanced
Post screenshot
tab owner. Post screenshot as well

Thanks Kaktussoft, here we go:

 

[Kaktussoft]

Try to delete some folders in f:\windows (some random one)
Try to delete some files in f:\windows (some random one)
Works?? if not

Create a file and folder in f:\windows. Works? Delete them, works?

 

[Kaktussoft]

In elevated command prompt:

[COLOR=red]become owner of everything under f:\windows[/COLOR]
takeown  /f  f:\windows  /r  /d  Y
[COLOR=red]reset the permissions. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /reset  /t  /c  /l  /q
[COLOR=red]set permission to inherete. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /inheritance:e  /t  /c  /l  /q

Works? any errors?

 

[Kaktussoft]

In elevated command prompt:

[COLOR=red]become owner of everything under f:\windows[/COLOR]
takeown  /f  f:\windows  /r  /d  Y
[COLOR=red]reset the permissions. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /reset  /t  /c  /l  /q
[COLOR=red]set permission to inherete. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /inheritance:e  /t  /c  /l  /q

Works? any errors?

did it fix the problem?

 

[Slartybart]

Might this be a case for EVERYONE?

Add the EVERYONE object with full control to the security for F:\Windows and F:\Users - populate subfolders and files.

Might work.

Bill

 

[Kaktussoft]

Might this be a case for EVERYONE?

Add the EVERYONE object with full control to the security for F:\Windows and F:\Users - populate subfolders and files.

Might work.

Bill

Better do: Take ownership for F:\Windows and F:\Users - populate subfolders and files first. And populate the permissions as well. So remove the excplicit permissions and inheret them only.

Full access to EVERYONE is not enough! There can be be DENY permissions (although very unlikely)

 

[jimdandy]

In elevated command prompt:

[COLOR=red]become owner of everything under f:\windows[/COLOR]
takeown  /f  f:\windows  /r  /d  Y
[COLOR=red]reset the permissions. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /reset  /t  /c  /l  /q
[COLOR=red]set permission to inherete. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /inheritance:e  /t  /c  /l  /q

Works? any errors?

Kaktussoft, I think you've done it!! Thankyou so much.

Windows folder is gone and I'm in the process of repeating the process with the Users folder as I type. Thanks for sharing your ninja command prompt moves!

I think I must have good karma after helping out lots of people on audio forums! Thanks again to AddRAM, Kaktussoft and Slartybart.. hopefully some other forum members can gain something from this thread too!

 

[Kaktussoft]

In elevated command prompt:

[COLOR=red]become owner of everything under f:\windows[/COLOR]
takeown  /f  f:\windows  /r  /d  Y
[COLOR=red]reset the permissions. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /reset  /t  /c  /l  /q
[COLOR=red]set permission to inherete. includes subfolders[/COLOR]
icacls  f:\windows\*  /inheritance:e  /t  /c  /l  /q

Works? any errors?

Kaktussoft, I think you've done it!! Thankyou so much.

Windows folder is gone and I'm in the process of repeating the process with the Users folder as I type. Thanks for sharing your ninja command prompt moves!

I think I must have good karma after helping out lots of people on audio forums! Thanks again to AddRAM, Kaktussoft and Slartybart.. hopefully some other forum members can gain something from this thread too!

Glad you solved it. You could have done it yourself using windows explorer GUI!


My commands only did:

• take ownership of everything in f:\windows
• delete all explicit permissions on the files
• activate inherentence.

Probably most of the files did actually delete on first try(?)
You forgot to populate ownership to files/subfolders(?)
You forgot to populate permissions to files/subfolders(?)

that's why I gave you the cryptic commands.

Why not simply format F?