Thank you so much! I had added a second SSD containing all my files plus the old Windows 7. I had to run your procedure a few times to clear all the old folders, but I finally erased them all.
Thanks so much for making this video, it saved me a bunch of time and headache. Just a heads up: my Windows.old folder was 27GB and it took several minutes (~7) for the disk cleanup window to appear after I hit the button. For a while, I thought this technique would not work for me. But when I came back the window was there and worked exactly like he showed it here.
This was exactly what happened to me. I had 2 windows folders and they sized 27gb too. I thought it wouldn't work when it took several minutes to load. But it did.
@@anythingshorthair2262 Yep exactly, it will remove the installation of Windows from that drive! (which you probably don't need anymore, assuming you will continue with your OS on the boot drive) I am currently using my older HD (that had windows) for certain programs and files that I don't feel I need on my main drive! (SSD)
I have an ssd that I just bought and cloned the OS from my old hard drive. Now that I have finished installing the ssd and set it as primary boot drive, can I format the hard drive? Will it do anything to my laptop?
@@christianphillipampoloquio6484 I'm definitely not super experienced/familiar with laptops, although it seems probable that it would work out just fine. You should definitely do some more research!
Just rename the folder from whatever it is to "Windows.old" then follow the instructions int the video . Note pay attention that their is a fullstop after WIndows then old which is lowercase . I used an ssd and installed w10 on it but my old HDD already had w10 so i had to delete it and this video was very helpful. Thanks man
Fantastic, thanks. I literally googled for half an hour before finding this. Commenting and liking to bump it up the search algorithm. This solved my problem.
Wow, you're the man bro! So we just need to trick the system that we are deleting an old Windows installation, in order to delete the existing OS on a spare hard disk drive. Thank you.
Thank you! This did exactly what I needed it to do to free up space without losing old pictures that were saved in the user data and the games I had installed from steam to that drive. every other tut I seen wanted me to format the whole drive lol
Thank you so much for making this video. It is way better than the other tips I tried to use so I could remove my old copy of Windows on a previously used drive. Great work!
Wow thank you! I never knew about this. I had a second drive with an old Windows Installation on it that wouldn't let me delete any of the system folders. I just renamed Windows,Program Files,Users...etc one by one to Windows.old and ran the disk cleanup and it deleted them no problem. Again thanks a lot, this is a very valuable Windows tip to know!
Thanks a ton, you just saved me almost 11GB. I was using my old SSD as a secondary game drive but it had my old Windows install on it. It would not delete and after renaming it, it showed up in the disk cleanup. Thanks again!
Ma man! 4 years later this video still relevant :P Thank you it really helped... First google search game me stuff with comand prompt which I was too lazy to do, but your tutorial helped! Haha who would have thought that it would be so easy to fool windows by renaming a folder. Thumbs up!
Thank you so much for this; after spending effort trying to change permissions and ownership, I finally was able to delete the old files simply by changing the folder's name and doing a disk cleanup.
I wish I found this video hours ago. Somehow reformatting hard drives corrupted my windows and ive been working since last night to find a solution to keep all my files. I put windows on a 120 SSD to boot to and removed the corrupted files by hooking up my 1tb SSD and doing this. Thank you.
so i’m getting a new pc but i’m loading windows on a new drive. but still using all the data on my current drive that has windows 10 on it. if i did this. windows os will be deleted on this drive but keep alll my files on that drive ??
I did all the steps up to after clicking on system clean up the first time. But when i try to bring up the disk cleanup again it won't come up at all & the old window files are still on the drive. update: finally got it to work after going through the steps again. guess it didn't process the commands the first time.
NICE! I had renamed the Windows.old folder at some point and none of the other methods were working for me. Renaming it back to Windows.old and using this method worked like a charm.
wow, this worked. Thank you ... This is for when you already have an SSD as your boot drive and you install another SSD and want to turn that into your boot drive. It will not let you delete the old windows for some reason on the first SSD through the normal method of deleting files....BUUUTTTT oh BUTTTT tHiS!! WORKKKSSSS!!!!
Lol! Thank you so much i just wipe out 47 GB data of windows 8... from my old HDD without formatting partition. I spend couple hours without success until I found yours solution.
When I try and click 'Clean Up System Files', it never shows up. In task manager, it shows that 'Disk Space Cleanup Manager for Windows' is running, but never shows up
It was hanging for quite a while at the end of the cleanup, so be patient if someone else experience that :-) And thank you so much sir! What a simple hack. I have no idea how that other windows installation appeared on my storage drive (think it might have been a botched restore attempt), but MAN what a great help this was. So annoying to not be able to get rid of that folder :-)
Thanks, I thought it wasn't working because it was stuck at the end and I was going to close it, and then I read your comment and decided to wait and it worked.
ty the old windows dleted but i want to delete old user,program files,program files (x86) that 3 is annoy me but the 1 is deleted is not working how to delete that 3 left
Thank you....I tried so many online solutions but everything failed..... Who would have thought that if I rename it .old I can delete the folder without any problem :')
This is so sick! So many web pages telling me to use SAFE MODE to do this and such a waste of time! Tips: for other folders in Program Files that you couldn’t delete, you can move the folder out and rename it to Windows.old … … then do what’s been told in TH-cam upload. If you’re very pleased with this non English speaking planet, just rename it to Windows.old and you know what to do next!
for a while i thought that my problem is solved after renaming to .old but the windows started cleaning up without i gain any more storage cleaned i preferred to wait till the process end but unfortunately when the clean up finished.... the windows folder disappeared but the free storage still the same i didn't get any more free storage
Yes. This is so simple I feel stupid! future viewers, if your files are not in a folder named Windows.old then make the folder and drag the other folders into the Windows.old. Worked for me. Good luck.
Can we appreciate the effort this man put, to speak English
big facts
facts, and he made it all really concise and easy to understand. big ups to this guy
God bless him
Hahah lol did my best sorry for terrible english guys
LoL...he speaks better than Donald Trump.
That, my friend, was a thing of beauty. You have just saved my sanity- this was driving me nuts! Very many thanks.
I looked for this video but it was hard to find because of the dumb TH-cam search algorithm
Thank you so much! I had added a second SSD containing all my files plus the old Windows 7. I had to run your procedure a few times to clear all the old folders, but I finally erased them all.
Thanks so much for making this video, it saved me a bunch of time and headache. Just a heads up: my Windows.old folder was 27GB and it took several minutes (~7) for the disk cleanup window to appear after I hit the button. For a while, I thought this technique would not work for me. But when I came back the window was there and worked exactly like he showed it here.
Thanks for letting me know
I thought It wasn't working
This was exactly what happened to me. I had 2 windows folders and they sized 27gb too. I thought it wouldn't work when it took several minutes to load. But it did.
Same for me in 2023. Only because I checked the task manager and saw the disk drive was active. Made me realize I needed to wait longer.
Thanks for the tip, worked well!
This did NOT delete any personal files kept within the drive I was working on (something I was worried about)
So it'll just gonna delete the Windows folder? Or os then its gonna be like a norman hard drive?
@@anythingshorthair2262 Yep exactly, it will remove the installation of Windows from that drive! (which you probably don't need anymore, assuming you will continue with your OS on the boot drive) I am currently using my older HD (that had windows) for certain programs and files that I don't feel I need on my main drive! (SSD)
I have an ssd that I just bought and cloned the OS from my old hard drive. Now that I have finished installing the ssd and set it as primary boot drive, can I format the hard drive? Will it do anything to my laptop?
@@christianphillipampoloquio6484 I'm definitely not super experienced/familiar with laptops, although it seems probable that it would work out just fine. You should definitely do some more research!
THANK YOU, i tried so many different permission actions and now my computer is a little weird but this finally got rid of the windows file!
Did you know you still help people since 2018? You sir, rock!
Just rename the folder from whatever it is to "Windows.old" then follow the instructions int the video . Note pay attention that their is a fullstop after WIndows then old which is lowercase .
I used an ssd and installed w10 on it but my old HDD already had w10 so i had to delete it and this video was very helpful.
Thanks man
Fantastic, thanks. I literally googled for half an hour before finding this. Commenting and liking to bump it up the search algorithm. This solved my problem.
thanks for the easiest way of disk cleanup. i was searching for days on youtube for this one but found useless ways.
Wow, you're the man bro! So we just need to trick the system that we are deleting an old Windows installation, in order to delete the existing OS on a spare hard disk drive. Thank you.
Thank you! This did exactly what I needed it to do to free up space without losing old pictures that were saved in the user data and the games I had installed from steam to that drive. every other tut I seen wanted me to format the whole drive lol
lmao, right ?
This was of great help, hundreds of GB are back for me to fill them with useless stuff once againg. Thank you friend!
I don’t normally comment on videos, but this was fantastic. Thank you!
finally a straight forward video on how to delete this.. thank you good sir
I LOVE YOU MAN!! You have no idea how much time and effort i spent on this until i found your video :D Thank you very much
Thank you so much for making this video. It is way better than the other tips I tried to use so I could remove my old copy of Windows on a previously used drive. Great work!
Wow thank you! I never knew about this. I had a second drive with an old Windows Installation on it that wouldn't let me delete any of the system folders. I just renamed Windows,Program Files,Users...etc one by one to Windows.old and ran the disk cleanup and it deleted them no problem. Again thanks a lot, this is a very valuable Windows tip to know!
Thanks a ton, you just saved me almost 11GB. I was using my old SSD as a secondary game drive but it had my old Windows install on it. It would not delete and after renaming it, it showed up in the disk cleanup. Thanks again!
Thank you bro,i very appreciate it. i wasted 3 hours before finding ur video👍
Ma man! 4 years later this video still relevant :P Thank you it really helped...
First google search game me stuff with comand prompt which I was too lazy to do, but your tutorial helped!
Haha who would have thought that it would be so easy to fool windows by renaming a folder.
Thumbs up!
Brilliant little trick. I've deleted loads of old files now. Thanks !
Thank you so much for this; after spending effort trying to change permissions and ownership, I finally was able to delete the old files simply by changing the folder's name and doing a disk cleanup.
Thank you! I can't believe deleting the old files would be such a pain in the ass. Even changing permissions wouldn't work!
THANK YOU GOD. Sotaque de BR kkk
carioca ainda kkkk
é br pra caralho KKKKKKKKK sabia na hora
I wish I found this video hours ago. Somehow reformatting hard drives corrupted my windows and ive been working since last night to find a solution to keep all my files. I put windows on a 120 SSD to boot to and removed the corrupted files by hooking up my 1tb SSD and doing this.
Thank you.
so i’m getting a new pc but i’m loading windows on a new drive. but still using all the data on my current drive that has windows 10 on it. if i did this. windows os will be deleted on this drive but keep alll my files on that drive ??
Yes, I just did it and kept my almost terabyte worth of games/mods lmao. This cleaned up so much headache.
I did all the steps up to after clicking on system clean up the first time. But when i try to bring up the disk cleanup again it won't come up at all & the old window files are still on the drive.
update: finally got it to work after going through the steps again. guess it didn't process the commands the first time.
Same is case with me.
Bro u just made my day,u r Just amazing,I was so frustrated as I was so excited to play GTA 5 man you are great!
AFTER HOURS OF SEARCHING I FOUND YOUR VIDEO AND IT WORKED! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Superb man... You saved me from formating by disk.. Keep making good video.
thx man looked for hours on the internet, this is the best video i found and that actually helped
I tried so many things in vain. Thanks to your video, did it so easily!! Wish I found it earlier
Dude, your video was the last step in a very frustrating search that took me hours! Thank you very much!
Almost 2023 and still useful!
NICE! I had renamed the Windows.old folder at some point and none of the other methods were working for me. Renaming it back to Windows.old and using this method worked like a charm.
cool, thanks - so much easier and more effective than the sequence of commands (takeown, icalcs, rd)
Tysm this removed it easily, it worked quickly too! And got rid of me being annoyed lol
Still works to this day thank you man
2021! this helped me! thank you!
Excelente. Bem explicado e direto, sem enrolação. Valeu guerreiro!
Very quick and helpful. Thanks brother
Short and quick video with the solution! Thank you, you saved me a headache!
24.8gb of unnecessary files showed up. Thanks genius!
wow, this worked. Thank you ... This is for when you already have an SSD as your boot drive and you install another SSD and want to turn that into your boot drive. It will not let you delete the old windows for some reason on the first SSD through the normal method of deleting files....BUUUTTTT oh BUTTTT tHiS!! WORKKKSSSS!!!!
Ignore those down-votes! Thank you for solving this problem - I'd tried 10 other ways and your method got it done in seconds.
its good having you man ...l want thank you for making this video ,it works 100%
Here, King. You dropped this 👑
big homie came in with the dub.
This is perfect. It's something that wouldn't work, but did. Thank you very much!
Great and short tutorial! Finally got it deleted after trying it many things! Thank you!
Lol! Thank you so much i just wipe out 47 GB data of windows 8... from my old HDD without formatting partition.
I spend couple hours without success until I found yours solution.
You are the hero of the day. this still works I did this today 15 july on windows 11.
Thanks for the simple explanation. Never new it was so easy.
Brilliant. Simple, quick and effective. Thank you very much.
When I try and click 'Clean Up System Files', it never shows up. In task manager, it shows that 'Disk Space Cleanup Manager for Windows' is running, but never shows up
Greatest Helpful Sir Thanks 😍
Thank you very much sir
Thank you! Finally someone showed the right way!
Thank you very much, I hate how you can't do this without a workaround
It was hanging for quite a while at the end of the cleanup, so be patient if someone else experience that :-)
And thank you so much sir! What a simple hack. I have no idea how that other windows installation appeared on my storage drive (think it might have been a botched restore attempt), but MAN what a great help this was. So annoying to not be able to get rid of that folder :-)
Thanks, I thought it wasn't working because it was stuck at the end and I was going to close it, and then I read your comment and decided to wait and it worked.
Love it it worked awesomely. Remame it windows.old and let disk clean up fix it!!! Simply Genius.
Brilliant! Many thanks for this. Much simpler than other options !!
I appreciate you so much. Thank you for saving me from buying a new drive just to play world of tanks. :)
Thank you so much. I guess I'm becoming more and more pc illiterate gosh. Couldn't figure it out just by reading and googling.
omg you saved my storage and my life thanks bro!!
thx very much, tried a lot of complicated stuff with permissions and all, and this is an very easy but effective solution!
And it worked. Congratulations man
thank you it worked , i was nearly about to format my drive
Thanks for the help! I've been surfing trech sites for an hour and came to your video. I'm 15GB free! :D
This is genuinely working. Awesome. Thank u sir.
Thank you very much, also I wanna take a guess and say that you have a Portuguese or Brazilian accent ;)
thanks man
ty the old windows dleted but i want to delete old user,program files,program files (x86) that 3 is annoy me but the 1 is deleted is not working how to delete that 3 left
Hey mate, did you manage to erase those 2 other Program Files folder? Thank you!!!
This worked like magic! Thank you.
Thank you....I tried so many online solutions but everything failed.....
Who would have thought that if I rename it .old I can delete the folder without any problem :')
Thank you very much.
This is great helped me so much just subscribed
I have tried this, the folder has disappeared but Windows is isn't showing any additional free space?
Thank you for this video, I will recommend it to anyone who has the same problem :)).
This is so sick! So many web pages telling me to use SAFE MODE to do this and such a waste of time!
Tips: for other folders in Program Files that you couldn’t delete, you can move the folder out and rename it to Windows.old … … then do what’s been told in TH-cam upload.
If you’re very pleased with this non English speaking planet, just rename it to Windows.old and you know what to do next!
You're a life saver, thank you very much sir🙏🙏🏾
excellent
This did work!! Amazing, great job dude. Thanks for speaking in english. Thank you
thanks man, it worked greatly!
Thank you, works perfectly !
Thank you for the help. How do you also delete the program files
Thank you man, I was looking for this one all the time thank you
After everything I tried, I can't believe it's that easy. Just rename the file
for a while i thought that my problem is solved after renaming to .old but the windows started cleaning up without i gain any more storage cleaned
i preferred to wait till the process end but unfortunately when the clean up finished.... the windows folder disappeared but the free storage still the same i didn't get any more free storage
same thing happened with me.. Any solution you found out?
Yes. This is so simple I feel stupid!
future viewers, if your files are not in a folder named Windows.old then make the folder and drag the other folders into the Windows.old. Worked for me. Good luck.
Everytime I use the method for some reason the files just come back
Man, God bless your good soul.
Really appreciate your efforts
Thank you thank you so much
What if you reinstalled your Windows 2 times and you want to delete stuff from your 1st one, what should i do?
right after i renamed my "Windows" file to "windows.old" , disk cleanup won't work
clever solution. thanks for sharing!
How do I delete the Program files and Program data folders as it wont let me do that.. same way?
Many many thanks.
Salute your tricks.
And
Repeatedly Thanks a lot,,,,,,