Deleting a Windows installation from a second drive

.Griff. · 13 Jun 2011 at 20:11

I have two drives in my PC; An SSD as my main OS (Windows 7) and games drive and a "data" drive for movies, music, photos, backups and so on.

The data drive has an old Windows installation on it which I want to delete but each time I try and delete the relevant directories I'm told I don't have the necessary permission.

I don't want to format the data drive as it has some 250gigs of files on there I need but I could do with the space the old Windows installation is taking up. I've searched Google and tried a few things without success.

Any ideas?

BinnsY · 13 Jun 2011 at 20:17

Right click the folder, go to properties. Hit the security tab then click advanced, select the owner tab. Depending on your version of Windows you might have to hit edit, select your account name, tick the "replace owner on subcontainers and objects" check box and click ok on all the boxes.

This should let your account take ownership of the files and then do what you like with them.

.Griff. · 13 Jun 2011 at 20:27

Thanks for the reply Binnsy.

I'd tried that before but I followed your advice and did it again just to be sure.

Unfortunately I still end up with a permission error -

I'm logged in as "Griff" (Administrator account) on the SDD (Griff PC) and I've changed the ownership of the old Windows installation to "(Griff-PC\Griff)" but it always comes back with the error in the screenshot?!?!

DWorrall · 13 Jun 2011 at 21:13

Download Hirens Boot CD... Get an older copy though like version 9 from the bay.

Has disk management tools on it and use them to format the partition.

UnworthyBean · 13 Jun 2011 at 21:23

Pretty sure this is what DWorrall is posting but -

Partition the drive with the windows folder on one partition and then format it. No other real way of doing it.

.Griff. · 13 Jun 2011 at 21:25

Even if I create a small partition Windows will not let me move the old installation to that partition for the same permission reasons as I've outlined above.

BinnsY · 13 Jun 2011 at 22:11

Have you granted your current account full control over the files then tried taking ownership?

Uhtred · 13 Jun 2011 at 22:23

BinnsY said:
Have you granted your current account full control over the files then tried taking ownership?

this - taking ownership is one thing but you also need to give yourself full control

.Griff. · 13 Jun 2011 at 22:40

I'm pretty sure I've got full control -

deanolfc · 13 Jun 2011 at 22:43

use diskclean up this may detect the windows old folder and then remove it

rite click the drive select properties then disk clean up

BinnsY · 13 Jun 2011 at 22:55

What happens if you click on the effective permissions tab and select your current username? Does it show that you have full control there?

.Griff. · 13 Jun 2011 at 23:01

If I enter my user account name in effective permissions it comes back with everything underneath ticked.

DWorrall · 13 Jun 2011 at 23:37

Control panel -> Administrative tools -> computer management

Disk Management

Format the partition with the old windows installation.... Before this... move all your data to keep to another drive or create a separate partition.

Not that hard xD

.Griff. · 13 Jun 2011 at 23:50

It's also not hard to see why that's not possible if you'd read the thread correctly.

UnworthyBean · 14 Jun 2011 at 08:20

You need to partition them but move everything but the windows installation. Acronis can do this but is an expensive option. If you have a Linux live cd, this is the best option.

.Griff. · 14 Jun 2011 at 14:49

There's hardly any space left on the second drive so any partition I'm able to create is going to be relatively small. It certainly wouldn't be big enough to move all my backups etc on to it and I can't move the old Windows directory(s) on to it for obvious reasons.

I might just live with it...

deanolfc · 14 Jun 2011 at 15:43

and the diskclean up ?

.Griff. · 14 Jun 2011 at 15:52

deanolfc said:
and the diskclean up ?

Does absolutely nothing on the second drive.

denby · 14 Jun 2011 at 15:54

can you do it from dos? before windows loads?

.Griff. · 14 Jun 2011 at 15:57

Never considered that. Back in 5 mins..