windows.old after upgrade to win10

[sz0ty0l4]

i upgraded succesfully to windows 10, now i see a folder : windows.old on my SSD taking up nearly 20GB. How can i remove that folder without creating any issues? thx

 

[Samat]

It's the backup of your old install if you need(ed) to roll back to the old install for any reason. You can remove it by running disk cleanup (type cleanmgr.exe in the run prompt, windows key + r).

Edit. fixed some spelling

 

[kyllien]

You can use Disk cleanup to remove it. Make sure you have all of you documents though before you remove it.

 

[sz0ty0l4]

sadly disk cleanup reports that i can only gain 24mb ^^ so what am i doing wrong?

 

[Wisecracker]

Did you check the *More Options* tab?

 

[ShadyHamster]

You need to use the 'clean up system files' option after running disk clean up for the first time, after that you will need to go through the list of extra items to be deleted, most system items will be unselected by default.

 

[mikeynavy1976]

I actually ended up having to do a clean install. I could not get disk cleaner w/ clean up system files option to work. It would go through the motions but the directory, complete in size, would not remove. You also can't just delete it (denied). I tried something to "take ownership" so I could delete it and that that didn't work. Neither did a "refresh"...although the refresh did remove the downgrade to Windows 7 option. Lastly I tried a "reset" and then the computer ended up hung in a loop at the screen that asks for your time zone and keyboard preferences. This might be one of many bugs in the "upgrade" process.

 

[boshettee]

Sorry for time spent doing clean install....there is a program, CCleaner, that cleans many temp files but it also gives you the option to delete windows.old. This could have saved you hours.

 

[James Mason]

In windows 10 cleanup there's a Clean Up System Files button in the main cleanup window that will add the Previous Windows Installations check box to the list.

 

[mikeynavy1976]

Sorry for time spent doing clean install....there is a program, CCleaner, that cleans many temp files but it also gives you the option to delete windows.old. This could have saved you hours.

Doh! I didn't even think to see if CCleaner had that capability. Oh well. At least my computer is running nice and fast.

 

[Dvx67]

I just moved mine to a different drive. It looks like it's working but going to take a while. (LOL)

 

[Dvx67]

The above failed. I deleted it with CCleaner.

 

[bgunner]

I needed to run disk cleanup twice. the first time (i'm guessing) helped it scan the system drives to recognize the Windows.old folder. The second time i ran it I had the option to delete the old windows installation.

So the advise given does work But bare in mind that you need to run the windows Disk clean up tool twice in order to remove this file.

 

[Xare87]

The windows.old folder just contains the files from your last OS, you can safely delete the folder with shift+delete, but keep in mind that you may need to rename it first and might wan't to get the files you need(if you need any of the files) from the windows.old folder. Also you might need to have adminstrator privliges for this.