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Resolved Question

Deleted Windows.old Manually Now System Won't Boot

May 16, 2017 11:55AM PDT

I know, I know you use disk cleanup to remove Windows.old... now. Regardless, I don't understand how deleting that folder could cause the issues in having.

I did a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro 64-bit earlier today. When I booted into the operating system I found a Windows.old in the root of my c: drive. Confused at how I got a Windows.old folder when I did a fresh install AND when I manually reformatted all partitions of my previous windows installation during the Windows install process, including the recovery partition, I went ahead to remove it manually (by taking permissions of the folder and hitting shift+delete).

Text when I reboot my computer it would begin to boot into Windows delete showing the Windows splash screen

Discussion is locked

Phoenix801 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
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Clarification Request
This is a continuation of my post, Phoenix801.
May 16, 2017 12:16PM PDT

Today must not be my day because my phone submitted my post before I was finished outlining my issue. To continue...

When I next rebooted my PC into windows, it showed the Windows splash screen for a moment, then the screen goes black except for those swirling dots indicating Windows is doing something; however, it just keeps doing that.

I couldn't get it to boot to Windows recovery, so I tried an install disk in the hopes that I could utilize it to access said recovery. However, it only gives me the message that it appears I rebooted in the middle of an upgrade, and if I want to continue that upgrade I should boot into windows, or I can proceed with a fresh install from disk.

My questions are these:

How did I end up with a Windows.old folder when I did a fresh install and deleted all partitions of the previous system drive?

Why did deleting Windows.old cause my computer to crash when it pertains to an OS that is no longer active?

Finally, is there any way I can recover from this without a re-install, or is that simply to be my punishment?

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Why is going to be me guessing.
May 16, 2017 12:35PM PDT

My bet is that new update to Windows that is so huge that it might create the .old. Manually removing it before the big update is done (and tested) could crash the OS.

For this one if you insist on a fix without a do over, time to ask Microsoft.

Post was last edited on May 20, 2017 11:33 AM PDT

Best Answer

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MS Tech Answer re Windows.OLD
May 19, 2017 4:51AM PDT

After updating to Win10 Creator I deleted Windows.old to save space on my SSD drive. Like you, I ended up with a machine that wouldn't boot (just the swirling MS dots you described in your post). When speaking with a a MS tech support person I was told that Win10 Creator won't boot without the files contained in Windows.old, so for the moment, at least, you can't delete Windows.old. Nice one, MS ... would have been good to have been warned about this in advance! Users used to be able to delete Windows.old (using Disk Cleanup is preferable, or CCleaner) in the past to recover disk space (25GB is taken up by my Windows.old folders) but not any longer, or at least, not for the time being. I had to perform a clean install of Win10 to get back to a working machine. My restore Win10 flash drive (from Lenovo) was the preceding version of Win10 so now I once again have a Windows.old folder (25GB) after updating (again) to Win10 Creator, but I guess there isn't any other choice for the moment, apart from downloading a clean install of Windows 10 Creator from the MS Media Creation tool site (I'm guessing that would work). Hopefully, MS will allow for the deletion of the Windows.old folders at some point, as it's taking up far too much room on my drive.

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Not The Same Results Here... Windows.old Removed Fine
May 19, 2017 4:41PM PDT

On a half dozen machines here, we used Disk Cleanup and it removed Windows.old on all machines after the Creators Update. All booted just fine after doing so and continue to run correctly today. I don't think it should make a difference but none of these computers had SSD drives, but instead were using standard hard drives. In addition, none of them had secondary drives installed.

I'm not sure why the MS tech would tell you that, but that's not the results here. Obviously, if the tech was right, NO ONE would be able to run their computer after deleting Windows.old. And if I remember correctly, Windows.old automatically removes itself after 30 days or so.

Hope this helps.

Grif

Post was last edited on May 19, 2017 5:01 PM PDT

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Windows.old // Maybe CCleaner Was the Culprit
May 20, 2017 2:15AM PDT

Thanks, Grif. I used CCleaner to remove Windows.old in a routine CCleaner operation. This is why I said "Disk Cleanup is preferable" in my original post, as I was thinking that perhaps it was CCleaner that screwed things up (although in the past I have always used CCleaner to remove old versions of Windows, without a hitch). As I have enough free space on my SSD to not have to worry about the 25GB that Windows.old is currently taking up, I think I'm going to wait a month and see if Windows automatically deletes the files (as you rightly say, it used to do this and I hope it still does!). I'm thinking that this would be the safest way to proceed, as I really don't want to be reinstalling the OS again! Thank you for your input. Good to know that if the files aren't automatically deleted after 30 days then next time if I use Disk Cleanup to delete .old I will most likely not end up with a non-bootable machine.

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Thank you
May 20, 2017 11:24AM PDT

That's good to know that it's Windows Creator that creates that folder, and that it's not meant to be deleted. I ended up having to reinstall my OS, but ran into issues with booting the disk EFI. Every other boot device had both the standard and UEFI boot options, but nothing I did would compel windows to install without doing so as an MBR disk. I followed a guide to create a new UEFI partition only to have the windows install erase all my work and install in Legacy mode. Finally I just installed Windows 10 to a second hard drive and then cloned that disk to the problem one and now everything is fine again. It was a pain to go through, but I know substantially more about UEFI! Thanks again for your input.

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UEFI
May 20, 2017 11:37AM PDT

My machine is brand new and so also has UEFI BIOS, which I hadn't used before. I discovered that rather than going directly into the BIOS during boot-up, if I instead hit the F12 key it took me to a separate, select boot order menu, from which I could simply select the external flash drive, and it then booted from my recovery USB stick and commenced the OS install. Not sure if that is applicable to what you were describing, or whether the F12 option is unique to my machine (Lenovo X1 Carbon 5th Gen), but thought I'd put it out there, in any case. Glad you're up and running again.