How to Delete Windows.old and $Windows.~BT folders in Windows 10  

Maggidon said:

Right now, I have followed (I think) the instructions in Option 3. Presently, I have before me in the Command Promp, the following ...
"RD / S /Q "C:\Windows.old" ...
This is where I'm a bit confused ... do I just hit the enter button on this to rid the Windows.old? I'm reading right after that instruction put in the Command Prompt, the following ... B) Close the command prompt AND then after that a picture of Choose an option ... that's the part that scares me. I'm not following and I say it scares me a bit because I don't want to get to that blue screen where it's telling me .... Continue / Troubleshoot / Turn off your PC.
The reason I'm saying this is because this is where I got a couple years back and the computer would not reboot. Please advise, say it simple!!!

Be sure that you do step 2 in option 3 first to verify what the drive letter is for the Windows drive at boot. It's not always "C" at boot.

When you close the command prompt at boot, you should normally see the "Choose an option" (aka: advanced startup) screen where you can select to continue to boot to your Windows 10.

Maggidon said:

I also am enjoying another event of not being able to get rid of WIndows.old. Trying to manually delete it, it says "Could not find this item. This is no longer located in C:\. Verify the items location and try again" ...Also, trying the RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%windows.old ... I get this message, "The system cannot find the file specified."
Yet it is still showing in the File Explorer as Windows.old.
(I have just uninstalled the Upgrade Assistant after rebooting and this did nothing either as to removing the Windows.old file)

To be honest, I'm half afraid to to keep at this, for a couple years back, after removing this Windows.old, my compute wouldn't reboot. Please let me know what I should do other than leaving it alone, although again, back a couple years back, even after 30 days, the Windows.old Folder did not disappear.

Just throwing something out here. I had that rogue windows.old character that refused to go away. Last file in a deep tree just did not exist, so couldn't delete the folder. I took ownership of the folder, opened admin cmd prompt, typed CD \ (to make sure I was in C:), typed dir /x /a , to verify I was in C: and could see the windows.old. Typed RD /s Windows.old and Enter. Zap! All gone.

Maggidon said:

Ok, I say unto thee f14tomcat. My first mistake was to not take ownership of the Folder. Being half smart, I typed in the RD /s Windows.old and then hit the enter button like I was in my right mind or something. It was probably the fastest I saw files scrolling past the screen in a long bit but once in a while I could see "access denied" ... it kept doing that till I figured this laptop was going to burst into flames.
After it stopped, I took ownership of the Folder and repeated the command. Now to my great delight, the Windows.old has done a disappearing act.
I am now going to reboot the machine and see if everything is ok. If you don't hear back from me, you'll know I've gone and done it again ... done something to this computer e.g. made it so it won't reboot. Stay tuned to a computer near you for furthered updates.

Sorry, had to chuckle! Your Narrative got me in stitches! Glad the bugger is el gonno!

Are you alive @Maggidon? Did you boot and come back ok?

Maggidon said:

Here's something else that will have you in stitches. Apparently that command I gave before I took ownership of the Windows.old file completely removed the contents (or most of it) from my laptop. Now my worst nightmare has once again come true. I'm writing this from my old(er) computer of which I should have tried that trick. although on this machine, the Windows.old was gone.
Therefore once again, I have to take my old HD and restore it to my SSD on my other machine. That will of course mean, I'll have to re-download Windows 10 Fall update etc! Joy of all joys!

Did you accidentally leave off the ".old" part or have a space in there? Something like that?

Maggidon said:

No, actually I copied and pasted the command and did make sure it was Windows.old before I hit the enter button. Whatever, apparently I did something wrong and now I'm paying for it OR will pay for it to get a Tech to copy the old drive back to this SSD and re-download the Fall update for Windows 10.

Do you have an Image Backup you can restore?