How to remove old windows xp. Proper removal of old Windows versions and files. If the new system is installed on the same partition as the old one
"(BSOD) and freezes, at times, can change its operation beyond recognition or stop functioning altogether. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number of requests from Internet users “how to remove old Windows” is constantly increasing.
Windows OS can sit for years for those who limit themselves to working in office applications, viewing multimedia files, and the programs they use are not even updated. It's a different matter for those who like to experiment with new programs. Exactly for them the question of removing old Windows is most relevant.
When a new Windows OS is installed on top of the old operating system or in another partition parallel to it, it becomes very important that not a trace remains of the old version. The previous Windows system is called Windows.old, and does not interfere with the main system.
But there are two problems here:
- The impressive volume of the old system while occupying the right space;
- The presence in the boot menu of an inscription about the old Windows.
Or maybe you are simply planning to change the operating system, for example, to Linux. All this pushes you to get rid of the old Windows OS As soon as possible.
According to statistics, old Windows XP is uninstalled much more often than Windows 7. It is also worth knowing that deleting the Windows.old folder is an irreversible process. For different versions of Windows OS, the windows and sequence of actions may differ slightly, but, in general, the principle is the same.
There are 3 main methods to remove a previous Windows system from your PC. Let's look at each of them in more detail.
Method No. 1
Widely used for Windows 7, but not suitable for Windows XP. You need to insert the disk with the installation distribution into the disk drive, and then begin the installation. A message will appear indicating that an old system has been detected that is stored in the Windows.old folder.
The process will not affect important data, because old system folders and files will simply be moved. If something happens, you can easily restore them. If desired, the Windows.old directory can be completely deleted.
Method number 2
Not accessible to everyone due to its specificity. Try booting from a different hard drive. There should be no problems with deleting the old version of Windows, since it is visible in Explorer and you can delete any of its directories. However, the presence of two stationary hard drives on one computer is extremely rare.
Method number 3
A universal option based on downloading a smaller version of Windows, called Windows PE. You can boot from a CD or, more popularly, from a flash drive.
But the functionality of the system is extremely limited, so it’s quite difficult to get video. However, you can work with the file system in full. After loading the LiveCD, it is recommended to erase the old Windows. The hard drive may not be displayed in the PE system.
Therefore, simply change the operating mode of the disk subsystem in the BIOS to IDE with AHCI. If the erasing process is unsuccessful, then you just need to change the access rights using the commands “Folder Options” - “Security”, and then “Advanced”.
The easiest way to remove the old Windows 7 activator is through its installer. Don’t forget to disable software protection using the “Control Panel” services, then “Administrative Tools” and finally “Services”.
In general, to delete the Windows.old folder, you need to open the Disk Cleanup program using the Start button. In the search field you need to enter “Disk Cleanup”, then in the list of results select the item of the same name “Disk Cleanup”.
Then the Windows OS drive is selected, after which the “OK” button is pressed. Go to the “Disk Cleanup” tab and click the “Clean up system files” button. Be sure to select the “Previous Windows installations” checkbox for all files to be deleted, and then click “OK”. A message box will then appear where you simply click on “Delete Files”.
Also, to completely remove the second or older version of Windows from your computer’s hard drive, a simple but very effective program called NanWick Windows Uninstaller is suitable.
Applicable for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and 8. Effectively removes unnecessary files associated with previous versions of the OS and folders on all subpartitions of the disk and in the boot menu. After making copies of the necessary data, proceed to install the program through the installer.
Many PC users often have a “Windows.old” directory appear after updating or reinstalling Windows, if, for example, you upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 10. This folder stores all files of the previous OS, as well as all user and program files. All this information takes up a lot of space on your hard drive. Depending on the amount of user data of the previous OS, in some cases this directory can reach tens of gigabytes. Therefore, we will try to understand this issue in detail.
The system saves the previous version for further opportunity to return to her(perform the so-called Downgrade). As a rule, this opportunity is temporary, and if you do not use it, the folder will be deleted automatically.
Figure 8 removal process
Let's look at an example of deleting the "Windows.old" directory after upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 8. To do this let's go to our local drives by pressing Win + E. Select the local disk with Windows installed and go to its properties, as shown in the figure.
In the disk properties window, click the button.
The Disk Cleanup analysis window should appear.
After this, the “Disk Cleanup (C:)” window will appear, where you should press the key Clean system files.
If you click this button, the system will estimate the volume of files being deleted, and we can move on to the next window. Here you need to check one box, as shown in the figure.
In our case, the files of the previous OS are 7.92 GB. Once the appropriate item is selected, you can safely press the OK button. Disk Cleanup will start, which will delete all files from the previous OS.
The process of deleting a folder in the top ten
Deleting a directory in 10 is very similar to the process of erasing a folder in 8. We also go to the explorer. Select the local drive “C:/” and go to its properties.
We also click on the button.
After clicking on the button, we will see the same window as on the figure eight, only a slightly different design.
Press the same key Clean system files and move on to the next window.
Select the same checkbox and click OK.
As you can see, the process is similar to the first one with the eighth version of Windows. In this example we have 8.36 GB freed, which is a good result.
You should also remember that when you delete the “Windows.old” directory, user data and files of installed programs are erased. The structure of subfolders with files from the previous OS is shown below.
These files can be multimedia data, Word documents, or Excel documents. Therefore, before deleting this folder, you should save the important data contained in it.
Removing the Windows.old folder using CCleaner
The best option is a system cleaning program CCleaner. This program can be downloaded for free from the official website www.piriform.com/ccleaner. Installing the program is quite simple and even a novice PC user can handle it. After starting the program, you should select the item “Cleaning” in the “Cleaning” tab. Old Windows installation" as shown below.
Now click the Analyze button. This is necessary for CCleaner to analyze the files that need to be cleaned and display a complete list of them in the program window. In the figure below, the line containing files from the “Windows.old” directory is highlighted.
After clicking the Cleanup button, the program will completely delete the files of the old OS.
Manual removal
Now we will describe the manual deletion process, that is, if you deleted a directory using the Delete key. After deleting a folder using the Delete key, you can see the following message.
This message means that we do not have permission to delete this directory. To correctly set the appropriate rights, go to the folder properties on the tab " Safety».
Now click on the Advanced button. You should be taken to the Additional Security window for this folder.
As you can see from the picture, the owner of our folder is “ SYSTEM" Therefore, you need to select the owner of the user with whom you logged into the system and click the Apply button. After applying the rights, you can delete “Windows.old” using Explorer with the Delete key.
Removal using TakeOwnershipPro
You can delete the “Windows.old” directory using a simple utility TakeOwnershipPro, which you can download from http://www.top-password.com/download.html. After installing the utility it will appear as a separate item in the Explorer context menu A. To delete a directory, go to the context menu for the folder to be deleted and select the item “ TakeOwnershipPro».
After clicking, a program window will launch where it will scan and assign rights to files and directories in order to subsequently remove them.
The scan may take two minutes or longer, depending on the size of the folder being deleted. After waiting for the scan to complete, click the Take Ownership button. After which the folder will be permanently deleted in about two minutes.
Conclusion
After reading this material, you should no longer be wondering why I can’t delete the “Windows.old” folder. By doing this, you will free up gigabytes of free space on your hard drive. I would also like to remind you that by deleting this directory, you delete all user data from the previous OS. Therefore, if necessary, you need to make backup copies of this data.
Video on the topic
They are not rare. However, not everyone can remove one of the two operating systems. Some people continue to work with several operating systems at once.
When the “eight” from Windows appeared, not everyone was in a hurry to remove the “seven”; a popular solution was to install two versions, this made it possible to check the functionality and ease of use, and, if necessary, remove an unnecessary option. Some remained on the “native” Windows 7, while others opted for the new edition.
There is no point in working with two operating systems at once. A powerful computer allows you to install at least 7 series of OS, the amount of hard drive memory can cope with such a task, but this will not be useful. But on outdated equipment this will already affect the speed of operation, and even freezes are possible. In each case, it is necessary to remove unnecessary Windows from the computer, but how to do it?
Some users, when they see such a problem, are sure that it is easy to solve; they need to format the partition of the extra OS and the task is completed. In fact, this will not solve the problem, but will only hide it, because the bootloader will continue to work. You also need to erase the OS from the boot window.
Why are there multiple operating systems on one computer?
The choice to boot the operating system arises for several reasons:
- In most situations, the problem occurs due to the installation of several operating systems on one computer. As already mentioned, some do this to test the operating system, but inexperienced users do it by mistake, after which for a long time they do not even notice the “duplicity” of their PC;
- Another reason why you have to select an OS every time you boot is the incorrect installation of Windows. When a person forgets to format a hard drive before recording a new OS, the process will occur on top of the previous Windows.
As a result, a selection window appears at startup, but in fact, only one OS is running on the computer
The second variant of the problem is not so serious; you can remove the “false” OS line from the selection window. Also, the choice of operating system by boot is eliminated by installing the working version by default.
How to remove a second operating system from your computer
If the download starts with selecting the operating system each time, then this is not critical. You can remove the operating system from your computer through the command center. The method is suitable for different versions of Windows (including 7 and 8), and is performed in four steps:
- After turning on the PC, you need to enable the command line (Win and R keys). In the input line of the “Run” menu, enter the command “msconfig” and confirm the actions by pressing the “OK” button (or press “Enter”);
- Next comes editing the Windows 7 boot menu.
- Before you remove the old Windows, you need to select the extra lines (when the operating system was installed a couple of times and did not follow the recommendations, then there can be 3-4 lines at once) and delete them.
- At the next stage, the application will offer to restart the device. Experts advise not to put off this action until later; the system needs to promptly make some changes to the OS boot record.
This is how it turns out to remove the second Windows 7 at startup; after turning it on, a window with two options will no longer appear. By default, the series of operating systems that was installed last will start working (At this time, the previous Windows publishers will no longer exist, there were only entries in the boot window).
You need to be vigilant during formattingAfter you managed to remove the old Windows 7 from your computer, the logical question arises what to do with the partition where the old OS was stored. In such situations, it is advised to simply format the section, and in the future leave the necessary electronic documents there.
First you should check everything that is stored there. In particular, there should be folders with program files, user accounts and a Windows folder. When you had to remove the second operating system, the partition will not be on the C drive.
Important! The procedure will erase all data from the local disk memory. For example, if the deletion took place from the system drive C, then all desktop files, “My Documents” folders, etc. will go away forever.
How to remove one of the two operating systems for Windows 7 (no different for version 8)
It is advised to remove the old Windows after installing the new one by working in the menu of the system that will remain on the computer. The procedure is also possible with the old version (a kind of self-removal), but it will be easier. For example, when you need to remove previous versions of Windows 7, but leave the “eight” (although the process is no different between 7 and 8).
You can remove the second Windows 7 at startup along with the partition. The Disk Management function is suitable for this; it works the same on Windows 8 and 7. First, right-click on the partition to be deleted, then you need to select the “Delete volume” line.
At the final stage, right-click on the existing partition and select “Extend volume”Thus, the volume of the partition's memory will increase at the expense of the previous one.
This is how you can remove an operating system through the command line, if there are two of them. Even inexperienced owners will be able to remove the second operating system. Still have questions? Let's ask!
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Many laptops and personal computers come with pre-installed operating systems. If you've been using Windows for several years, chances are it will stop working as quickly as it used to. Over time, the OS becomes overgrown with many errors, which can take too long to fix manually. In this case, the best option would be to reinstall. This article describes how to remove Windows from your computer and then install a new version.
If Windows was installed on one drive and then you purchased a new one, you can simply install the OS on it. In this case, your personal computer will have 2 operating systems at once: new and old. This is often done by users who want to take advantage of solid-state drives. Just connect a new drive and install Windows on it, as described in many guides.
Deleting files manually
After this, you need to remove the old OS from the laptop. This is necessary for two reasons. Firstly, it takes up a lot of space on your disk. Secondly, when booting, you will constantly have to choose which version of Windows to boot from. This is very inconvenient: you can accidentally confuse the version, and then wait until everything reboots.
The most effective way to delete it is to completely format the partition. Its disadvantage is that absolutely everything will be deleted. Any file, each program on this media will be irretrievably lost.
If only a few gigabytes of important information are stored on the disk, this is not a problem. You can temporarily move it to a new (system) drive, transfer it to a flash drive, or upload it to cloud storage. 
Otherwise, you will have to delete all unnecessary data manually. To remove the OS from your personal computer or laptop, you need to delete the folder called “Windows”. After this, you can clear the space from programs. After installing the new system, the old programs will no longer work and will have to be installed again. Therefore, the contents of the “Program Files” and “Program Files x86” directories (if you have a 64-bit OS installed) can be safely sent to the trash.
Formatting a disk using Windows
If something important is missing on the old system HDD, or you managed to copy all the information to a safe place, it is recommended to use formatting. During this process, all data along with the markup will be destroyed, after which the disk will be re-marked.
After formatting, you will probably feel how much faster your computer has become. The difference will be even more significant than after defragmentation. It's easy to start this process. Just follow the provided guide:
You can also do this using the Windows console:
Formatting during installation
If you are going to reinstall Windows on the same HDD on which the system is currently located, the steps will be slightly different. You will not be able to remove a running Windows using its own tools. You can try formatting drive C - the computer itself will tell you about it.
Fortunately, Microsoft developers foresaw this and created a formatting tool right on the installation disk. Begin installing the operating system as usual, following the instructions. 
When you get to the step where you need to select a partition for installation, click on the “Disk Setup” hyperlink. In the menu that opens, you need to click “Format” to erase the old OS and delete all other files. After this, continue installation as usual.
If you upgraded from Windows 7-8 to Windows 10, or installed a new build, then a Windows.old folder appears on your system drive C, which contains a copy of the old Windows installation and is quite large in size. This article will show you how to remove Windows.old in Windows 10.
If you delete this folder, you will not be able to roll back the system to the previous build of Windows. If you do not plan to return to previous versions of Windows, and if you do not like the fact that some folders take up more than 10 GB on the system disk, use one of the methods indicated in this article.
Remove Windows.old using settings.
One of the easiest ways to remove Windows.old, which does not require third-party software, is to use system options:
1.Go to the “Start” menu and select “Settings”;
2.Open “System”;
3. On the left side, select “Storage”, and on the right side, click on drive C (that is, select the drive on which Windows is installed);
4.After scanning, the system will show what and how much space is occupied on this disk. Using the down arrow on your keyboard, go down the list and open "Temporary Files";
5. Check the box for “Previous version of Windows” and click “Delete files” (in this menu you can also delete junk in the recycle bin, downloads, etc., in other words, clean the disk of excess).
Now you can close settings, the Windows.old folder has been deleted.
Remove Windows.old using Disk Cleanup
This method takes a little longer, but is also easy and does not require any special programs.
1.In the search bar, write cleanmgr and select “Disk Cleanup” from the results found (you could also press the Win+R keys and run the cleanmgr command);
2.Select the drive on which you have Windows installed, usually drive C, select it and click “OK”;
3. Below, select “Clean up system files”;
4.Once again, select the disk on which Windows is located and click “OK”;
5.Check the box for “Previous Windows installations”; also, to free up more space, you can check the box for “Temporary Windows installation files”, and then click “OK”;
The deletion process will begin and when disk cleanup is complete, the Windows.old folder will be deleted.
Remove Windows.old using ccleaner
Essentially the same method for deleting the Windows.old folder as above, but using third-party software. If you have the Ccleaner system cleaning utility installed on your computer, use it.
1.Run the CCleaner utility;
2.Select “Cleanup” => Windows => scroll down and in the “Other” list, check the “Old Windows installation” box => then click “Cleanup” => “Cleanup” again to clear what was found => next window confirm the cleaning.
That's it, when the cleaning process is completed, the Windows.old folder will be deleted.
Remove Windows.old in Command Prompt
1.Run the command line as an administrator: one way is to right-click on the Start menu and select “Command Prompt (Administrator);
2.Copy and paste the following commands into the Command Prompt and press ENTER after each one. (see picture below)
attrib -r -a -s -h C:\Windows.old /S /D
RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%\windows.old
After running the commands, close the Command Prompt. The Windows.old folder will be deleted.
There is another way: go to additional launch parameters => launch the command line there => run the DiskPart command to see what letter the Windows drive has => run the list volume command and look at the disk volume, which of them contains the system, remember the letter and run the exit command to exit DiskPart. Now you need to run the command RD / S / Q "E:\Windows.old" only instead of E, specify the drive letter that you found in DiskPart. After running the commands, close the Command Prompt and click Continue.
These methods for deleting the Windows.old folder should be enough for you, if there are additions, write comments. Also write which method helped you! Good luck to you :)
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How to delete the Windows.old folder after upgrading to Windows 10 Anniversary
After updating to the new Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you will notice that the space on the “C:” drive has decreased by 10-15 GB. If we open the “C:” drive in Explorer, we will see the Windows.old folder, which takes up the same amount of space.
The easiest way to delete the Windows.old folder is to go to the properties of the “C:” drive and run the Disk Cleanup wizard, select “Clean up system files” and check in the list:
- Previous Windows installations
- Windows installation temporary files
At the end of the cleaning wizard, the folder with the previous version of Windows will be permanently deleted.
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Delete the Windows.old folder after upgrading to Windows 10
woodhummer 08/27/2015 - 20:53 Workshop
After the release of the Windows 10 operating system, many users updated their computers. And if you look at the contents of the local disk, you will notice the files remaining from the old system in the corresponding directory.
Where did the Windows.old folder come from?
When upgrading the system, the installer creates a folder Windows.old, into which it places a complete copy of the previous operating system, the “Program Files” folder and the contents of user profiles.
If the update is not the first in a row, all previous versions of the OS are also stored in folders called “Windows.old.000”. It is not difficult to guess that the contents of Windows.old can be very voluminous.
Usually, after the final transition to a new OS, this folder can be deleted, especially if you do not plan to return to the old version of Windows. Let's look at three main methods.
1. Using the system cleanup utility
In the Run window (Win+R) write the command cleanmgr.
Click on clean up files and wait for the utility to analyze the disk.
Then select the appropriate checkbox and click “OK”.
2 From the command line
Right-click on “Start” and launch a command prompt with administrator rights.
Enter the command RD /S /Q “%SystemDrive%\Windows.old”
3 From the command line before loading the OS
The method is much more complicated than the previous two, be careful when using it. From the main menu, select “System Reboot” while holding down the “Shift” key.
Diagnostics:
Extra options:
Command line:
The computer will reboot, and the next time you boot, the command line mode will start. Please note that in this mode, the mapping of logical drives differs from what we are used to, so to determine the drive on which our Windows.old is located, we do this:
- Run the command diskpart;
- In the utility that opens, type list volume;
- We look at which letter is assigned to the system drive;
- Exit diskpart with the exit command.
In our situation, the system drive is assigned the letter D, and therefore the command to remove Windows.old will look like this:
RD /S /Q "D:\Windows.old"
When finished, choose to continue downloading Windows 10.
P.S.
Clean up space on your computer - promptly delete unnecessary files, including backup copies of old operating systems.