Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers semms
to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some reaosn
interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the old
installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of them!
Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership; tried running
a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to delete. What gives,
besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

Try opening the folders and then deleting the individual folders/files, I
found that I had to do it this way. It seems that the permissions don't
carry down all the way.
There must be a better way of doing it though, I hope someone knows and
answers.

Ray

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers semms
to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some reaosn
interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the old
installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of them!
Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership; tried
running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to delete.
What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

I have had to use this same procedure in XP


"Ray" wrote:

Try opening the folders and then deleting the individual folders/files, I
found that I had to do it this way. It seems that the permissions don't
carry down all the way.
There must be a better way of doing it though, I hope someone knows and
answers.

Ray

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers semms
to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some reaosn
interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the old
installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of them!
Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership; tried
running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to delete.
What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

Doesn't work, either. Each single file - even though I'm the owner - is
impossible to be deleted. Stupid. Do I really need to format, and
reinstal?!!

Piotr


"Have a Go" wrote in message
...

I have had to use this same procedure in XP


"Ray" wrote:

Try opening the folders and then deleting the individual folders/files, I
found that I had to do it this way. It seems that the permissions don't
carry down all the way.
There must be a better way of doing it though, I hope someone knows and
answers.

Ray

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers
semms
to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some
reaosn
interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the old
installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of
them!
Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership; tried
running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to delete.
What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

Hi, Piotr.

Let's get more specific on a couple of points:

Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership;

Ownership of what? Owned by whom?

Can you create a new User (if you haven't already) named "Piotr" (perhaps),
and have that User take Ownership of the entire drive, or, at least, the
entire \Windows.old folder? In my experience, this took much longer than I
expected because it had to take ownership of each file and folder, one at a
time. But when it finally ends, the User Piotr should be able to delete the
folder.

Let us know, step by step, exactly what you did and exactly what error
message or other result you saw.

tried running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to
delete.

In the Command Prompt window, what command and parameters did you use? As
I'm sure you know, we don't "delete" a folder, we "remove" a directory. If
we enter simply "rd \windows.old", we probably will get a message that the
directory is not empty. If we append the /s switch, it will try to remove
the entire directory tree, including all subfolders and files, even though
not empty - but it will first ask us "Are you sure".

Again, please tell us exactly what you typed in the Command Prompt window
and exactly what results you saw.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x64)

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers semms
to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some reaosn
interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the old
installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of them!
Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership; tried
running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to delete.
What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

Hi,

I didn't create a new account; being logged as "Piotr" I took the ownership
of the windows.old folder, including subfolder and files. I then checked the
security setting for a couple of deeply burried files - the ownership is
mine all right.

When trying to delete from Windows Explorer, there were 2 stages: first, the
system informed if I want the administrator allowing me to delete; I clicked
OK and - after a while - the error message "Accessd denied" appeared for
each consecutive file (after pressing Skip).

Very similar was how it looked in the Administrators console; I typed "rmdir
/s windows.old"; the system asked me if I'm sure, I accepted and there was a
bunch of error messages about trying to delete individual files with access
denied again.

What's my next move?

Piotr

"R. C. White, MVP" wrote in message
...
Hi, Piotr.

Let's get more specific on a couple of points:

Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership;

Ownership of what? Owned by whom?

Can you create a new User (if you haven't already) named "Piotr"
(perhaps), and have that User take Ownership of the entire drive, or, at
least, the entire \Windows.old folder? In my experience, this took much
longer than I expected because it had to take ownership of each file and
folder, one at a time. But when it finally ends, the User Piotr should be
able to delete the folder.

Let us know, step by step, exactly what you did and exactly what error
message or other result you saw.

tried running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to
delete.

In the Command Prompt window, what command and parameters did you use? As
I'm sure you know, we don't "delete" a folder, we "remove" a directory.
If we enter simply "rd \windows.old", we probably will get a message that
the directory is not empty. If we append the /s switch, it will try to
remove the entire directory tree, including all subfolders and files, even
though not empty - but it will first ask us "Are you sure".

Again, please tell us exactly what you typed in the Command Prompt window
and exactly what results you saw.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x64)

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers
semms to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some
reaosn interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the old
installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of
them! Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership; tried
running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to delete.
What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

Which build of Vista? Disk Cleanup can now remove those pesky windows.old
folders left behind after install.

--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I didn't create a new account; being logged as "Piotr" I took the
ownership of the windows.old folder, including subfolder and files. I then
checked the security setting for a couple of deeply burried files - the
ownership is mine all right.

When trying to delete from Windows Explorer, there were 2 stages: first,
the system informed if I want the administrator allowing me to delete; I
clicked OK and - after a while - the error message "Accessd denied"
appeared for each consecutive file (after pressing Skip).

Very similar was how it looked in the Administrators console; I typed
"rmdir /s windows.old"; the system asked me if I'm sure, I accepted and
there was a bunch of error messages about trying to delete individual
files with access denied again.

What's my next move?

Piotr

"R. C. White, MVP" wrote in message
...
Hi, Piotr.

Let's get more specific on a couple of points:

Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership;

Ownership of what? Owned by whom?

Can you create a new User (if you haven't already) named "Piotr"
(perhaps), and have that User take Ownership of the entire drive, or, at
least, the entire \Windows.old folder? In my experience, this took much
longer than I expected because it had to take ownership of each file and
folder, one at a time. But when it finally ends, the User Piotr should
be able to delete the folder.

Let us know, step by step, exactly what you did and exactly what error
message or other result you saw.

tried running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to
delete.

In the Command Prompt window, what command and parameters did you use?
As I'm sure you know, we don't "delete" a folder, we "remove" a
directory. If we enter simply "rd \windows.old", we probably will get a
message that the directory is not empty. If we append the /s switch, it
will try to remove the entire directory tree, including all subfolders
and files, even though not empty - but it will first ask us "Are you
sure".

Again, please tell us exactly what you typed in the Command Prompt window
and exactly what results you saw.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x64)

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers
semms to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some
reaosn interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the
old installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of
them! Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership;
tried running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to
delete. What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

I should have added that - in the list of Group or user names in the
Security tab - there is only one entry for whom ALL permissions (including
the Special permissions) are ticked. This entry is called "Unknown
identity{long_number}, and probably is just a left-over after the first
installation, just like the "windows.old" folder itself (BTW, this folder
occupies 9.62 GB on disk and contains 50194 files in 9306 folders, so
deleting each file one by one is out of question - formatting and
reinstalling would be faster).

After my first couple of trials didn't work, I deleted this Unknown identity
and now I (the user Piotr) as well as the group Administrators have full
permissions, but NOT special permissions - I guess this is the clue. How to
grand the Special permissions (last entry at the bottom of the permissions
list) to myself, or the Administrator?

Frankly, I'd have formatted the drive and reinstalled Vista long ago instead
of trying to delete the folder in question, but I think it's important to
solve the problem in a more intelligent manner - after all, we're all going
to be using Vista on the regular basis...

Right now my version is RC2 Build 5744 (x64).

Please try to help me - what do you mean by Disk cleanup, Jane C?
"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I didn't create a new account; being logged as "Piotr" I took the
ownership of the windows.old folder, including subfolder and files. I then
checked the security setting for a couple of deeply burried files - the
ownership is mine all right.

When trying to delete from Windows Explorer, there were 2 stages: first,
the system informed if I want the administrator allowing me to delete; I
clicked OK and - after a while - the error message "Accessd denied"
appeared for each consecutive file (after pressing Skip).

Very similar was how it looked in the Administrators console; I typed
"rmdir /s windows.old"; the system asked me if I'm sure, I accepted and
there was a bunch of error messages about trying to delete individual
files with access denied again.

What's my next move?

Piotr

"R. C. White, MVP" wrote in message
...
Hi, Piotr.

Let's get more specific on a couple of points:

Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership;

Ownership of what? Owned by whom?

Can you create a new User (if you haven't already) named "Piotr"
(perhaps), and have that User take Ownership of the entire drive, or, at
least, the entire \Windows.old folder? In my experience, this took much
longer than I expected because it had to take ownership of each file and
folder, one at a time. But when it finally ends, the User Piotr should
be able to delete the folder.

Let us know, step by step, exactly what you did and exactly what error
message or other result you saw.

tried running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to
delete.

In the Command Prompt window, what command and parameters did you use?
As I'm sure you know, we don't "delete" a folder, we "remove" a
directory. If we enter simply "rd \windows.old", we probably will get a
message that the directory is not empty. If we append the /s switch, it
will try to remove the entire directory tree, including all subfolders
and files, even though not empty - but it will first ask us "Are you
sure".

Again, please tell us exactly what you typed in the Command Prompt window
and exactly what results you saw.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x64)

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers
semms to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some
reaosn interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the
old installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of
them! Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership;
tried running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to
delete. What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

Try this - although it says for Windows One Care - same concept applies -
just change the directory - just make sure you do this in an elevated
command prompt.


--
Richard Hay
Windows Live Butterfly
Windows Beta Tester
http://WindowsObserver.com

"Piotr Wozniacki" wrote in message
...
Hi,

This has been asked and answered many times, but none of the answers semms
to work here. I started installing Vista from the XP, but for some reaosn
interupted and installed from the DVD boot. Unfortunately, the old
installation files were renamed "windows.old" and I can't get rid of them!
Tried from both OS'es (XP and Vista); tried taking ownership; tried
running a command prompt as administrator - still no rights to delete.
What gives, besides re-formatting?!!

Piotr

"Jane C" wrote in message
...
Which build of Vista? Disk Cleanup can now remove those pesky windows.old
folders left behind after install.


Jane C, you're a genius! I used the 'Previous wWindows installation(s)
option in Disk Cleanup and the windows.old folder is gone! Thanks!

But, it'd still be nice if we knew the method of effectively administer
permissions and organize our folders/files on our own computers, wouldn't
it?

Piotr