When will windows 10 delete windows old folder

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  1. Posts : 21
    windows 10
       #1

    When will windows 10 delete windows old folder


    Hi,
    I've had windows installed since 31st July. Runs like a dream now and so well pleased with it. I thought that the old windows 7 - in the windows_old folder would be deleted by now. There was a restart of my computer and I thought that would have done it, but it was only the installation of a driver for the laptop touch pad. Shall I just delete this folder or let Microsoft do it some time in the future?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,053
    Windows 11 Pro x 2
       #2

    Hello steve1711 the tutorial by Brink below may be of some help.

    Windows.old Folder - Delete in Windows 10
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 21
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    IownAmoneyPit said:
    Hello steve1711 the tutorial by Brink below may be of some help.

    Windows.old Folder - Delete in Windows 10
    Wow - thanks for the info. I have loads of space on my hard drive so I might just leave it be. What I thought would happen is after 30 days windows would automatically delete the folder. I guess I'll wait and see.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 21
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #4

    All deleted


    Just checked computer after I booted up today. The Windows_old folder is now empty. Will mark this as sorted.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 6
    Windows 10
       #5

    Of course this is not the end.

    Using Acronis Disk Director, for example to look into unlabelled partitions on the boot drive.
    The is now an additional partition.
    where there was a 350MB NTFS with
    Recovery
    Recovery/Logs
    Recovery/WindowsRE files: boot.sdi, Reagent.xml, Winre.wim
    System Volume Information files tracking.log
    all the above files with dates of 2013 or 2014

    then there is the same kind of partition of 450MB this time
    Recovery
    Recovery/WindowsRE
    System Volume Information
    (no Recovery/Logs) this time.
    Same file names in the directories indicated before but now with 2015 August 13 dates except for boot.sdi which is july 10.

    That is a remnant of Windows 8 remains.

    The question is: is it deletable or do uuid's or guid's lurk within.

    John
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 14,901
    Windows 10 Pro
       #6

    Hi johng,

    These partitions are recovery partitions as you may have guessed, accessible when you can't boot into windows.
    1 is from Microsoft and 1 is from the manufacturer (motherboard manufacturer when using a desktop).

    I wouldn't delete any of them. I have 4 of them, in case 1 of them fails I have 3 left.
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #7

    johng said:
    Same file names in the directories indicated before but now with 2015 August 13 dates except for boot.sdi which is july 10.

    That is a remnant of Windows 8 remains.

    The question is: is it deletable or do uuid's or guid's lurk within.

    John
    I have boot.sdi with last maintained date of 2015/7/10 also. This is on a clean install though so it is not a remnant of anything (I have it in C:\Windows\Recovery\WindowsRE as I only have one partition).

    Don't delete it - it is an empty RAM disk template used for running recovery.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 6
    Windows 10
       #8

    axe0 said:
    Hi johng,

    These partitions are recovery partitions as you may have guessed, accessible when you can't boot into windows.
    1 is from Microsoft and 1 is from the manufacturer (motherboard manufacturer when using a desktop).

    I wouldn't delete any of them. I have 4 of them, in case 1 of them fails I have 3 left.
    Yes I am well aware of them I have had to semi-manually had to create them in doing a messy recovery and conversion to GPT.

    But the point is that what is left over is a mixture of Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

    John
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 6
    Windows 10
       #9

    halasz said:
    I have boot.sdi with last maintained date of 2015/7/10 also. This is on a clean install though so it is not a remnant of anything (I have it in C:\Windows\Recovery\WindowsRE as I only have one partition).

    Don't delete it - it is an empty RAM disk template used for running recovery.
    Indeed that you should have but in my case after an upgrade I have Windows 8.1 remnants as well as Windows 10.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 14,901
    Windows 10 Pro
       #10

    I don't know if you did a clean install and since when you have your pc, but I doubt that it is a lefover from windows 8.1, see halasz reply #7 for a part of the reason.
      My Computers


 

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