what happens when I delete windows.old after reinstall?

sarah451 · Mar 21, 2010

I read the tutorial about deleting windows.old, and that's simple enough, but I have a few questions.

I reinstalled after the BitDefender 64-bit fiasco yesterday. It went OK, and I found all the saved files in windows.old which I was afraid I had lost.

I was particularly concerned about my video and recorded TV files, so, when I found them intact, I "moved" them back to the appropriate "public" folders. Now Media Center sees them just fine. The weird thing, though, is that when I go into Windows Explorer, the files still "exist" in both the normal public folder and in the place I found them in windows.old.

Since I know that I didn't have enough disk space to duplicate them, the problem has to be a pointer or shortcut, but I'm at a loss as to how to get rid of it. I can, if need be, get another drive and copy them off, but I hesitate to just delete the windows.old folder without knowing if I'm going to also delete the files that are supposedly in the public video and recorded TV folders. Neither do I want to copy all those files off if I don't need to.

Can someone explain this further, point me to another thread or tutorial that I missed, or tell me what will happen to my files?

l)ark_Scorpion · Mar 21, 2010

Windows.old is the rename of the "Windows" folder when you install Windows 7 RC or Beta, and If you delete this folder, nothing will happen. You will have increased HD space.

I would try and recopy them and see if they go, then delete them.

smarteyeball · Mar 21, 2010

If what you copied to the new C:\User\Public* folder are only a few kilobytes (k/b) in size, then they will be shortcuts, however if they are still several GB per file in size then they will be the full copy.

As a test, you perhaps move or delete a file from the 'old public' and see if if the show still plays from the 'new public' folder.

sarah451 · Mar 21, 2010

Considering that there are files in the windows.old folder that I don't find in the windows folder -- e.g., users, documents and settings, program files, program data, and program files (x86), I think you may be mistaken about that.

Also, I didn't install Windows 7. I reinstalled Vista, which was why I posted this in the Vista section, not the Windows 7 section. Sorry I didn't mention that in the original post.

sarah451 · Mar 21, 2010

"Windows.old is the rename of the "Windows" folder when you install Windows 7 RC or Beta, and If you delete this folder, nothing will happen. "

Considering that there are files in the windows.old folder that I don't find in the windows folder -- e.g., users, documents and settings, program files, program data, and program files (x86), I think you may be mistaken about that.

Also, I didn't install Windows 7. I reinstalled Vista, which was why I posted this in the Vista section, not the Windows 7 section. Sorry I didn't mention that in the original post.

l)ark_Scorpion · Mar 21, 2010

My bad... I misread it. I just assumed you had everything copied over, and you didn't need the folder anymore.

sarah451 · Mar 21, 2010

smarteyeball said:
If what you copied to the new C:\User\Public* folder are only a few kilobytes (k/b) in size, then they will be shortcuts, however if they are still several GB per file in size then they will be the full copy.

As a test, you perhaps move or delete a file from the 'old public' and see if if the show still plays from the 'new public' folder.

Nope, size indicates full file, not shortcut.
New TV recordings show up in both normal directory and in windows.old
Deleting a file from either deletes from both.

It's as if the same subdirectory has two pointers.

(Ye Gods, but I hate the file system in Vista! XP was so simple. Move a file there and it stayed moved! I swear I may go back to DOS and Edlin.)

Agh! Dummy!
The video and TV files in windows.old are under public which is under documents and settings which is not a subdirectory; it's one of those stupid Vista shortcuts. There's no such directory when you get out to the command prompt. I'm still leery of deleting the shortcut, though, in case the link is strong enough to take everything with it.

whs · Mar 21, 2010

To be on the safe side, move windows.old to an external disk. Then you can always recover the files.

smarteyeball · Mar 22, 2010

sarah451 said:
I'm still leery of deleting the shortcut, though, in case the link is strong enough to take everything with it.

It may be worthwhile checking your library folder settings in Media Center and making sure they are all pointing to the new location (which is still the 'original' location) and don't have any 'secondary' link locations.

Otherwise, you could simply create new folders/locations to move all the media files to and then add that to the library whilst removing the C:\Users\public* as a location.

Another test alternative to deletion would be to simply rename the windows.old folder and see if you are impacted negatively. Ideally, this should 'break' any secondary links being created in the windows.old folder, whilst still maintaining the actual folder.

To be honest, I'm 100% sure why it would still be creating links to the windows.old folder, as I've never had the 'pleasure' of having a windows.old and thus am a little unsure of the machinations involved.

I suspect it is creating links in the windows.old folder in the event that a user would 'revert or roll back' to the original installation, thereby maintaining the original folder structure.

whs said:
To be on the safe side, move windows.old to an external disk. Then you can always recover the files.

If you have one, or space on another drive, it would be a good idea.

sarah451 · Mar 22, 2010

whs said:
To be on the safe side, move windows.old to an external disk. Then you can always recover the files.

I tried doing that, copying rather than moving.
I've got too much video to move it all till I format a new external drive, but even copying the other stuff was tough because some files complained about being system files and didn't want to be copied.
I think you are correct, though, that I ultimately must do that or risk losing files.

sarah451 · Mar 22, 2010

smarteyeball said:
It may be worthwhile checking your library folder settings in Media Center and making sure they are all pointing to the new location (which is still the 'original' location) and don't have any 'secondary' link locations.

I eliminated a couple folders from the watch list in Media Center's library, but that didn't fix the problem.

smarteyeball said:
Otherwise, you could simply create new folders/locations to move all the media files to and then add that to the library whilst removing the C:\Users\public* as a location.

Another test alternative to deletion would be to simply rename the windows.old folder and see if you are impacted negatively. Ideally, this should 'break' any secondary links being created in the windows.old folder, whilst still maintaining the actual folder.

After I get a drive formatted to NTSF and copy my files to it, I'll give those ideas a try. Since the drive is a TB and I already know from past experience that it will take about 8 hours or so to reformat, the copying and experimenting will have to wait till tomorrow.

smarteyeball · Mar 22, 2010

When using DISKPART through the cmd prompt to format the external from FAT32 to NTFS, perhaps use the QUICK switch rather than the full slow format

FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK

Or if formatting via the GUI, tick the 'Quick Format' box.

(FAT32 has a max 4GB file size limit, hence the error message)

what happens when I delete windows.old after reinstall?

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