Windows Problem

[Alyada]

HAHA! Windows problem. Oh, jeeze, I kill myself.

Anyway. I've had a few problems with my computer and Windows. The story is as goes:

Got computer->DL something shady-> Had to reinstall windows-> Installed Vista-> Got tired of Vista, reinstalled XP

Now, on my C drive, which is losing space every so quickly, I have 4 "Windows" folders on it.

Windows
Windows.0
Windows.1
Windows.Old

I'm operating out of Windows.1, but I can't seem to get rid of any of the other folders. Does anyone have a clue how to get this crap off your HD?

 

[Seteyu]

Quite frankly, I'd just back up your important data, format the drive and start over.

Sorry, but that's what I'd do if I saw that.

If anyone here's got any fancier tricks I'd be all ears for it.

 

[Lanien]

Did you create a new partition each time you reinstalled? That's what it looks like, as if you have 4 full versions of the OS installed. Try booting up from your XP disc and deleting the older partitions.

 

[Anttaru]

Looks like you never formated the HDD, then went ahead and performed clean installs without overwriting. Which is why your down 11 or so gigs.

 

[Alyada]

Looks like you never formated the HDD, then went ahead and performed clean installs without overwriting. Which is why your down 11 or so gigs.

Well not on purpose. D:

Most of the install times I was just pissed and not paying attention. I have very little patience for this sort of thing.

Ah well, I don't want to reinstall again (I just did like a week ago and got everything back the way I like it) so I'll just put all of it on my secondary HD.

 

[Kelyon]

Your problem is simple. Windows.

on topic: Good luck with fixing it, my comp is my life

 

[Acks]

If you reallllly wanna try something, try to delete from cmd line. Also, might wanna give it a go in safe mode since that'll help ensure files aren't blocking you from deleting them.

 

[Arctyrael]

I don't think Alyada has multiple partitions. Otherwise, these windows installs would not be in the same drive. As for why you can not delete them, it probably has something to do with NTFS file permissions protection. I could only venture to play around with it, but if you're at all tech savvy, you may want to look into Hiren's Boot cd version 9.+

Use Paragon Mount Everything to mount your C drive, and the just del(tree) each windows folder you do not like.

 

[CmdrFly]

The folders could be marked as boot locations in the MBR.

You'd have to boot off a floppy or something similar, getting you to command prompt with administrative NTFS credentials. There you'd do:

format /mbr

Doesn't wipe any data on the drive. I can't remember if you have to reinstall the OS (not reformat, just reinstall) after that... in your case you may need to seeing as it won't know which Windows folder to default to.

I'd rather suggest you systematically go through each Windows folder and delete the subfolders one by one. It should let you delete at least some of the subfolders. That'll clear up the space at least.