Window old directory in C drive


  1. Posts : 44
    Windows 10 Home (Windows 21H1 update)
       #1

    Window old directory in C drive


    Hi All,

    After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 using the free upgrade program from MS, the old windows 7 installation has been moved a folder call Windows.old. I am not sure if this is for reverting back to Windows 7 in case Windows 10 installation fails or for some other reason.
    However, this is folder is hogging a very large disk space ( around 36 GB) on my C: drive.
    Is there anyway we can remove this without affecting the current Windows 10 installation? Or it needs to be there to refer to some old data?

    Note: After upgrade my Windows 10 installation was not very stable, hence I have done a clean installation of Windows 10 on my system.

    regards,
    Rinjo
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #2

    rinjo said:
    Hi All,

    After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 using the free upgrade program from MS, the old windows 7 installation has been moved a folder call Windows.old. I am not sure if this is for reverting back to Windows 7 in case Windows 10 installation fails or for some other reason.
    However, this is folder is hogging a very large disk space ( around 36 GB) on my C: drive.
    Is there anyway we can remove this without affecting the current Windows 10 installation? Or it needs to be there to refer to some old data?

    Note: After upgrade my Windows 10 installation was not very stable, hence I have done a clean installation of Windows 10 on my system.

    regards,
    Rinjo
    When you did the clean install there was no further need for the Windows.old Folder, that was needed only if you wanted to revert within 30 days of the Upgrade, after the 30 days mine was deleted probably by an update. Don't think a clean install can revert.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #3

    rinjo said:
    Note: After upgrade my Windows 10 installation was not very stable, hence I have done a clean installation of Windows 10 on my system.

    regards,
    Rinjo
    I'm confused because if you did a clean install then there won't be a windows.old folder. The windows.old folder holds files from the previous OS upgraded from. The first step of a clean install is to erase the previous OS by either formatting or deleting the partition it was on and then installing the new OS to the empty space - thus there is no previous OS to create the windows.old folder from.

    In answer to your question - yes, you can delete the windows.old folder without affecting Windows 10 - but you will find it is very difficult to delete. For starters, I recommend taking ownership of it under the security properties, assign yourself full rights to it, and then boot into safe mode and delete it in safe mode.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 1
    Windows 10 business enterprise edition
       #4

    I had a sequence of installed operating sytesms of Windows 10 Enterprise Edition >>> Linux >>> Windows 10 Pro and again Windows 10 business enterprise edition (in which I will note the free trial reset to 90 days). There were THREE Windows folders on the C Drive, two of which were from old Windows 10 installations. Because I am something of a gambler, I deleted the old ones, saving some 40 or so GB. Any file it had a hassle about I told it to skip deleting but almost all the wasted space was removed.

    rinjo said:
    Hi All,

    After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 using the free upgrade program from MS, the old windows 7 installation has been moved a folder call Windows.old. I am not sure if this is for reverting back to Windows 7 in case Windows 10 installation fails or for some other reason.
    However, this is folder is hogging a very large disk space ( around 36 GB) on my C: drive.
    Is there anyway we can remove this without affecting the current Windows 10 installation? Or it needs to be there to refer to some old data?

    Note: After upgrade my Windows 10 installation was not very stable, hence I have done a clean installation of Windows 10 on my system.

    regards,
    Rinjo
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 44
    Windows 10 Home (Windows 21H1 update)
    Thread Starter
       #5

    NavyLCDR said:
    I'm confused because if you did a clean install then there won't be a windows.old folder. The windows.old folder holds files from the previous OS upgraded from. The first step of a clean install is to erase the previous OS by either formatting or deleting the partition it was on and then installing the new OS to the empty space - thus there is no previous OS to create the windows.old folder from.
    You are right, what I meant by a clean install is that I reset my PC from the 'recovery' section in settings that removed the previous installation along with all the applications installed on it.

    I will try the steps that you have suggested.
      My Computers


 

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