Removing Windows files from unused Vista installation

[Jarogo]

I installed Windows Vista on my E:\ drive, my computer performed so badly
that I went back to using Windows XP Home, which I am using now. I am now
left with a 6gb of Vista files that I cannot delete in on fowl swoop, Access
is Denied. So I have enabled the security tab and given Administrators full
control of the folder, subfolder and files, but the lower level directory and
files to no change their rights to Administrators, there is a user
S-1-0-?????-????? etc who only appears in the sub directories. I have to
manually go into the directory and apply Full Control to Administrators in
the security tab before I can delete that one directory, repeating the
process for each of the remain 756 folders. Is there a way of doing this in
the command prompt or by batch?

 

[Malke]

I installed Windows Vista on my E:\ drive, my computer performed so badly
that I went back to using Windows XP Home, which I am using now. I am now
left with a 6gb of Vista files that I cannot delete in on fowl swoop,
Access is Denied. So I have enabled the security tab and given
Administrators full control of the folder, subfolder and files, but the
lower level directory and files to no change their rights to
Administrators, there is a user S-1-0-?????-????? etc who only appears in
the sub directories. I have to manually go into the directory and apply
Full Control to Administrators in the security tab before I can delete
that one directory, repeating the process for each of the remain 756
folders. Is there a way of doing this in the command prompt or by batch?

Why don't you just format the drive/partition (whichever "E:\" is)? Either
open My Computer and right-click on the E:\ drive and choose "Format" or
get to it from Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management.

Before you do that, make sure you can see all hidden files and find XP's
boot files*. Copy them to the root of your boot drive (probably C:\).

*Boot.ini
NTLDR
Ntdetect.com

Malke

 

[Jarogo]

I would love to be able to do this but I do not have enough hard disk space
to back up my music, video and document files.

 

[Malke]

I would love to be able to do this but I do not have enough hard disk
space to back up my music, video and document files.

How sad. Hard drives are cheap. You can get an external hard drive for $100,
too. If that doesn't work for you, then review how you're taking ownership
because I think you're doing it incorrectly. You need to look on the
Advanced tab and have permissions be set on the child files/folders that
come from the parent folders. Then you only need to set permissions on a
top-level folder.

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Malke

 

[Jarogo]

Yes I tried those settings, and yes I would love to by a new harddrive but I
plan on buying a new PC for Christmas so I am trying keep this one working
until then, hopefully the next one will have two 500g hard drives.

Any way I have managed to solve the problem by using Xcacls.vbs in the
command prompt. It did not manage to do all the files but 95% of them. The
command I used was :

E:\cscript.exe xcacls.vbs windowsvista /e /g administrators:f /s /t /q

Found the solution at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825751

Thank goodness because that was really annoying me for months. Thanks for
your suggestions, just have to work out why My Documents are showing up three
times on this drive all showing the same files, like a ghost. Add a directory
of file and it shows up on E:\Users\Username\Documents,
E:\Users\Username\Documents, (Hidden) E:\Documents and Settings\Username\My
Documents (Hidden)!!!!

I would love to be able to do this but I do not have enough hard disk
space to back up my music, video and document files.

How sad. Hard drives are cheap. You can get an external hard drive for $100,
too. If that doesn't work for you, then review how you're taking ownership
because I think you're doing it incorrectly. You need to look on the
Advanced tab and have permissions be set on the child files/folders that
come from the parent folders. Then you only need to set permissions on a
top-level folder.

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

Malke