Windows.old Folder - Delete in Windows 8

How to Delete "Windows.old" Folder in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

If you performed a refresh of Windows 8, upgrade to Windows 8, or a custom install of Windows 8 without formatting the drive for a clean install and selected to install Windows 8 on the same partition of the previous Windows installation, then you may have a C:\Windows.old folder left over in your new installation. The Windows.old folder contains a copy of the previous Windows installation, and can be quite large in size.

If you already had a C:\Windows.old folder in the installation that you performed a refresh, upgrade install, or a custom install on, then it may be renamed to say C:\Windows.old.000 (older previous installation) in addition to the C:\Windows.old folder. The most recent previous installation will always be in the C:\Windows.old folder.

This tutorial will show you how to delete the Windows.old folder(s) generated during the installation to free up the hard drive space that the Windows.old folder(s) takes.

   Warning

Be sure to copy any files that you may want out of the Windows.old folder before you delete it. Once deleted, they are gone.

You must be an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

EXAMPLE: Windows.old Folder

OPTION ONE

Delete "Windows.old" Folder using Disk Cleanup

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1. Open Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr).​

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2. If prompted, select the Windows drive, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: You will not see this window unless you have more than one drive or partition on your computer with a drive letter.​

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3. Click/tap on the Clean up system files button. (see screenshot below)​

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4. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.​

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5. Repeat step 2 above.​

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6. Click/tap on the Previous Windows installation(s) box to check it, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)​

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7. Click/tap on Delete Files. (see screenshot below)​

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8. When Disk Cleanup finishes, the C:\Windows.old folder will be deleted.​

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OPTION TWO

Delete "Windows.old" Folder in an Elevated Command Prompt

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1. Open an elevated command prompt.​

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2. In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste the command below, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: If you had another say windows.old.000 folder that you also wanted to delete, then you could repeat this command substituting that name instead of windows.old to also delete it.​

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RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%\windows.old​

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3. Close the elevated command prompt.​

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OPTION THREE

Delete "Windows.old" Folder in a Command Prompt at Boot

NOTE: This would be a good option to do if OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO was unable to delete your C:\Windows.old folder.

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1. Press the Windows + R keys, then type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter. Make note of the name and total size of your Windows 8 drive.​

NOTE: You will need to know this in step 3C.​

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2. Using either a Windows 8 installation USB or DVD or system repair disc, boot to a command prompt at boot.​

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3. To Verify the Windows 8 Drive Letter at Boot​

NOTE: The Windows 8 drive letter may not always be C: at boot like it is while Windows is started, so be sure to verify it's drive letter before doing the command in step 4 for it to work.​

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A) In the command prompt, type diskpart and press enter. (see screenshot below)​

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B) In the command prompt, type list volume and press enter.​

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C) From the listed volumes, look for and verify the drive letter of your Windows 8 drive.​

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D) In the command prompt, type exit and press enter.​

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4. To Delete the "Windows.old" Folder​

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A) In the command prompt, type the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: Be sure to substitute D in the command below with the actual drive letter of your Windows 7 drive as displayed from step 3 above instead. If you had another say windows.old.000 folder that you also want to delete, then you could repeat this command substituting that name instead of Windows.old to also delete it.​

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RD /S /Q "D:\Windows.old"​

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B) Close the command prompt window.​

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5. Click/tap on the Continue button to restart the computer and continue to Windows 8. (see screenshot below)​

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6. Verify that the Windows.old folder has been deleted.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Boot to the "System Recovery Options" in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Refresh Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Upgrade from Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, or XP to Windows 8 or 8.1
• How to Download and Run "Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant" or "Windows 8.1 Upgrade Assistant"
• How to Create or Download an ISO for Windows 8 and 8.1

 

[adamf]

What about C/:$SysReset? This is created at same time as Windows.old but is not deleted by disk cleanup.

Should/could we delete it? It only seems to have logs of the refresh activity.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Nice tutorial as usual Brink, and wanting permission to use it in my P.C. class.

 

[Brink]

Hello Mike,

Sure thing. I'll be honored, and hope it helps.

 

[Tin1]

thxs it worked 4 me

 

[znod]

Thanks much. What a workout you give. The first two options above did not work for me with no chance of making them work. The third did not work for me since Shift + F10 did not work for me--and, thus, I could not run the needed elevated command prompt. Backtracked to here1--where I had learned about Shift + F10. Backtracked from second option in here1 to here2. No luck at here2 so I backtracked to here3. From here3, went to here4. Used the "manually create' shortcut option at here4. Applying the short cut, I was able to use my administrator account and run the needed elevated command prompt. Thus, I was able to use RD /S /Q "D:\Windows.old", and,voilà, the nasty old windows.old folder was slain. Glad I had created the system-reserved partition.

Pure genius on your part Shawn. I can barely imagine the work you put in on all the tutorials you do.

Deleting the Windows.old folder really added time to my clean reinstall of Win8, refresh for activation, and setup of the refreshed system. Thanks again Shawn. Never would have finished without the tutorials.

 

[Brink]

Glad it could help Tin and znod. Welcome to Eight Forums Tin.

 

[Phix]

Hello I took ownership of my windows.old folder and deleted it manually and it works, but there are still two files ( Flash64_11_5_502_135.ocx and Flash32_11_5_502_135.ocx ) which can't be deleted (don't have permission).Can you help?thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello Phix, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you haven't already, see if using OPTION THREE in the tutorial below to take ownership of and setting permissions to "Allow" yourself "Full control" of those two files will allow you to afterwards.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...le-folder-drive-registry-key-windows-8-a.html


If not, then you might see if using the free program Unlocker may.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[bassfisher6522]

So this window.old folder appears after refresh....well I followed the tutorial and tried step 2 with elevated cmd prompt and that didn't work. So I tried step 1 and that worked like a charm.

 

[McNeil]

Hey Brink, I also upgraded from Win 7 Home Premium x64 to Win 8 Pro x64.
So I also have Windows.old folder.
But I assume it has system files on it that I shouldn't delete.
Does Win 8 ever uses file from Windows.old folder?
I currently have no plans but can that folder be helpful if I decide to return to Win 7, my old OS?
If I keep using Win 8 (likely) then is it really safe to permanently delete it?
Thanks for the tip.

 

[Brink]

Hey Brink, I also upgraded from Win 7 Home Premium x64 to Win 8 Pro x64.
So I also have Windows.old folder.
But I assume it has system files on it that I shouldn't delete.
Does Win 8 ever uses file from Windows.old folder?
I currently have no plans but can that folder be helpful if I decide to return to Win 7, my old OS?
If I keep using Win 8 (likely) then is it really safe to permanently delete it?
Thanks for the tip.

Hello McNeil,

No worries. The Windows.old folder is just a copy (backup) of the previous installation in case you may want to copy anything back from it. If you don't need anything from it, then it's safe to delete. Windows 8 doesn't need anything from it.

 

[McNeil]

Thanks Shawn Disk Cleanup method worked and I was able to delete my Windows.old folder which was ~3GB.
After selecting cleanup system files I checked all boxes in the window, which also deleted all log files, Windows Update Log files, Installation files and pretty much everything else it could!
It deleted about 9.5 GB files, I hope that deleting other files that I mentioned above was safe.

 

[Brink]

Great news. That's a nice amount of HDD space to recover.

Sure, those other ones are safe to delete as well. Disk Cleanup doesn't delete anything that will harm Windows.

 

[roodap]

are you all sure deleting this folder does not affect the current working windows 8 like activation display driver etc.etc.

 

[Brink]

Hello Roodap, and welcome to Eight Forums.

No worries. The Windows.old folder is nothing more that a copy (backup) of the files from your previous Windows installation that you upgraded from. If there's nothing in the folder you wish to copy back, then it's perfectly safe to delete it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Vince53]

Roodap, I deleted the Windows.old folder from both the Windows 8 Preview Edition and from the Pro Edition. It did no harm to get rid of it.

 

[roodap]

my windows.old is only some 800Mb size.
which must have come from resetting the installation for some problems.
anyways i will remove it

 

[meebers]

Windows.old

I installed W8 this past January. It was a clean install from a MS DVD. Still getting used to this system, but was poking around today after I did an clone of the disk and noticed a windows.old folder, approx 16 GB. Since this was a clean install, did not realize a file of this type would be there. Anyways, is it safe to just delete this folder?? Tx

After reading some other post's here in the forum, I found Brinks "How to Delete the "Windows.old" Folder in Windows 8" That seemed to do the job, tx Brinks...

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome meebers. Glad it could help.

 

[guru2u]

Thanks this is great - used option one with a customer today over the phone. I put a link on our "how to" blog back to this thread. Cheers.