Questions about Windows.old and what to do with it.

[Newmaven]

View attachment Windows.old.big.pdf
I have a huge windows.old file. I don't know why I have it, as Windows was a clean install on this drive, and much of it seems to be duplicates of content files on my program and data drives. I presume that if I make a backup disk image ofC:\ on another drive I can get rid of it. But is there anything here I should be saving?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I can't see it surviving a clean install unless it's on another partition on the disk
Since you posted a pdf for some reason instead of uploading a picture image like png or jpeg we might have to wait to see what is up.

 

[Newmaven]

By the way, that clean install was onto a virgin drive.

 

[Ranger4]

Was this virgin drive the only drive connected at the time of the install. If you had another drive connected at the same time, some files may have been copied from it during the install process.

Could you please supply a screen shot of Disc Management. This tutorial tells you how to do that & make sure all the information gets covered by the screen shot.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

Please have all hard drives that you normally use connected as well.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
What is the Brand/ model and where was this tainted virgin drive bought from EBay ?

 

[genetics73]

View attachment 385390
I have a huge windows.old file. I don't know why I have it, as Windows was a clean install on this drive, and much of it seems to be duplicates of content files on my program and data drives. I presume that if I make a backup disk image ofC:\ on another drive I can get rid of it. But is there anything here I should be saving?

My suspicion - and it's just that - is that Win 10 wanted to get itself installed and in the process had created the Windows.old file. If all else is working fine for you, you can safely delete the entire file.

 

[JBmorris]

The Windows.old folder is a clone of your old Windows Installation, which includes the WINDOWS Folder,Programs Folder where all the Installed programs are, Documents and Settings Folder which includes your Entire Users and Documents, Music, and other files.

One thing you can do is Take the files you don't want to lose from the your old Users/documents Folder into the new one, and when you are done, you can delete the whole Windows.old folder, which will Free Lots of storage.

 

[Newmaven]

Disk 3 is in an external drive dock--i plan to use it to back up data from my E: drive.
Disk 4 is an external desktop drive. Both drives are via USB 3.0

I don't recall if the virgin drive was connected at the time of install, but I am pretty sure that my old C:\ drive was not connected at the time.

Computer is a Dell T3400. Drive may have been bought from eBay--I've bought drives from several places, eBay included.

 

[Ranger4]

@Newmaven. You state that you are not sure if the virgin drive was connected at the time of the install of Windows. But wasn't that the drive that you installed Windows on & it ended up with Windows old on it as well. So it must have been installed.

As you are unsure of what drives you had connected at the install time, it will be very hard to workout what has happened.

Have a look through your Windows old folder & see if there is anything that you wish to keep, if there is nothing you can delete it.

 

[Newmaven]

Windows.old and what to do with it.

I have been pruning away at windows.old--but some files seem to be more recent than those on the C: drive. Should I stop deleting, simply move all those files to the Windows directory, or what?

 

[AddRAM]

A windows.old folder is carried over when you do an upgrade install, or when you want to keep files and what not, not a true clean install, if you don``t need, it delete it, using disk cleanup.