Windows old - files

A simple question; I backed up all my files before installing Windows 7 RC. The installation made a film called Windows old that takes up 46GB. Can this file be deleted without harm to my system?

Have you backed up your files. These are all the files from your previous installation. You must have done a upgrade. So these are from the upgrade you did. Back these up before deletion.

You can go into the Windows.old files and get anything that you want to keep. I rely on this feature to keep all my documents, pictures, contacts, bookmarks and such. Then after I have copied everything I want to save into their respective files I remove the whole Windows.old file.

The way you remove it is to call up the Windows Disk Cleanup program. Have it scan your system drive. Then after it does that click on the "Clean Up System Files" button. Have it scan again and it will bring up the Windows.old file. Check mark it and have it delete it. If you just try to delete the file Windows won't let you.

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Yes, as long as you've backed up all your personal files than it is safe to delete the Windows.old file..

Originally Posted by PcBoyGeorge

Have you backed up your files. These are all the files from your previous installation. You must have done a upgrade. So these are from the upgrade you did. Back these up before deletion.

Vista and Windows 7 both do this when you do a clean install over a previous windows installation. Instead of just deleting everything it saves your previous installation into the Windows.old file. I call that an extremely cool thing.

I had trouble just deleting mine. The way I got rid of it was to go into the properties of your C drive and use disk cleanup