How to remove Win 7 Install files?

[cyclone3211]

I installed Win 7 Premium three times due to various problems initially. Problem was that each additional install my other two hard drives were renamed each time to the C: drive. After going through the process of renaming them back to the original letters, install files were left behind on each of those drives.

I have been trying to delete these with the Admin permission and have not been able to complete this due also to the TrustedInstaller issue not allowing the delete to happen.


How do I delete those “Windows”, “My Programs”, Windows backup, and other items left by the install on the other drives?



Those other drives contain data and other items that I want to keep.

 

[Konceptz804]

have you tried booting to safe mode and then trying to delete them?

 

[wallyinnc]

Welcome to the forums Cyclone
Have you taken ownership of the folders you want ot delete?

 

[cyclone3211]

Thank you for the quick reply.

Safe Mode provided no success. Took Ownership with the reg. hack and thought that would work until up came TrustedInstaller permission which brought all to an end.

How do you get around this wonderful helper....since it can not be eliminated...how do you get this permission?

 

[gregrocker]

I always run as Administrator and never have Trustednot Installer issues, nor do I ever have any actions second guessed.

Enable the (Hidden) Administrator Account on Windows 7 or Vista :: the How-To Geek

If you like it, then delete your named account and become Administrator (best to be done during first install).

Also ALWAYS remember to unplug all other drives during install except target drive.

 

[cyclone3211]

Thanks again for the reply but I am using WIN7 Prem. Did not know at the time the limitations in Prem and would have gone to Pro. May still go there anyway.

Unplug the other drives. Wish I would have thought of that before. Made the same mistake in WinXP, but us Seniors just do not have that long term memory working as well as it should.

Is there any way to get to the Admin account in Win7 Prem?

 

[gregrocker]

The command given in the link above also works in Win7 to enable an administrator account.

Log off and log back in as Administrator. Then you can try it out and, if you want to run that way, delete your named Account in User Accounts.

It will place all of your files on the desktop to be redistributed (the reason I always do it first after installation).

 

[cyclone3211]

Executed the command and this is what I got:
C:\>net user administrator /active:yes
System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.

Should this fix for the Admin account work in Win7 Prem?

 

[gregrocker]

You need to run the command as administrator.

Type CMD into start box, then right click result and Run As Administrator

 

[cyclone3211]

Did that before and was unable to get any mention of an ADMIN.

Should this work with Win7 Prem??

Up until now, I have already learned that there are many commands that are not available in either Home version. Either these items are not included or they have been crippled. If crippled there is a chance that someone will come along with a hack to open them.............but if they are not there..............than the only way would be to upgrade to the Pro version.

So, again I will ask if to the best of your knowledge..........can the Admin account be seen in Win7 Home Prem?

 

[gregrocker]

I used Home Premium Upgrade on two home computers which I set up to run as Administrator first thing after install running this CMD as administrator: net user administrator /active:yes

I then went into User Accounts and deleted my named account and files since there weren't any yet.

I am running as full Admin still in 7HP.

 

[cyclone3211]

Purchased the Upgrade from W7Prem to W7Pro and now have the Admin account.

On the other than the main drive that still has the Windows directory, I took ownership, then changed the Owner to the Admin, but still had to change each directory one at a time to get the permission to delete the files and than that single directory. This takes forever!

How do you get the permission to delete after being the Owner?

I still have many directories and another drive to do the same thing to remove the Windows directory. Is there an easier way to delete this entire directory at once and not one at a time?

 

[cyclone3211]

I found the answer and it worked!!!
1. [FONT=&quot]open an elevated command prompt as administrator
2. [/FONT]issues the following commands:
3. For Files:
[FONT=&quot]takeown /f file_name /d y
icacls file_name /grant administrators:F[/FONT]
4. For Folders or Directories (will perform action recursively):
takeown /f directory_name /r /d y[FONT=&quot]
icacls directory_name /grant administrators:F /t[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]5. Then just delete it.............gone!
[/FONT]