delete old user profile directory?

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=]

I recently re-installed Windows XP home over the top of an existing
XP installation. That went well, but there's an old user profile
directory in the 'Documents and Settings' directory that I'd like to
get rid of but can't. Access denied - I think I must have selected
the option to make it inaccessible to other users. I don't need to
recover anything from it, just get rid of it. (I don't even *need*
to do that, but I would like to.)

The old user account does not show up in the current user list.
It's an NTFS partition, so I can't get at it from DOS. Any ideas?

 

[Frank]

Right click on the file go to properties\ the security
tab\ and then to advanced\and then owner\ click on your
username and check the box to replace ownership on all
files and click ok\ you should now be able to delete it.

 

[NobodyMan]

Right click on the file go to properties\ the security
tab\ and then to advanced\and then owner\ click on your
username and check the box to replace ownership on all
files and click ok\ you should now be able to delete it.

Only if the OP is using and Admin Access account.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=]

Right click on the file go to properties\ the security
tab\ and then to advanced\and then owner\ click on your
username and check the box to replace ownership on all
files and click ok\ you should now be able to delete it.

Someone in another group gave me that same advice, but I don't have a
security tab in any of my file properties boxes. I was then told to
uncheck 'use simple file sharing' in the view tab of plder properties,
but i don't have such a checkbox either. I've solved the problem I had
(see below), but I'm curious about the fact that my installation does
not seem to have the options others do.

The Resource Kit has a tool called xcacls, which is something like
chmod for *nix systems. I was able to use it to grant my admin account
full access to the troublesome directory. Now I can access most of its
files and subdirectories, though a couple seem to be corrupted.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Someone in another group gave me that same advice, but I don't have a
security tab in any of my file properties boxes. I was then told to
uncheck 'use simple file sharing' in the view tab of plder properties,
but i don't have such a checkbox either. I've solved the problem I had
(see below), but I'm curious about the fact that my installation does
not seem to have the options others do.

The ability to uncheck Simple File sharing applies only to XP Pro, and
it is on all the time in Home. It then disables the Security pages;
just keeping the content of any profile hidden from other accounts. You
have found the workaround.