Q: How can I delete the windows.old from an upgraded Windows Server 2012R2?
A: For a client OS that's upgraded, the Disk Cleanup utility can be used to delete the very large windows.old folder containing the old OS. This isn't available on a server OS without installing the Desktop Experience feature.
Command line tools to take ownership and delete the folder . Make sure to “run as administrator” with the cmd [powershell will not work]:
takeown /F c:\Windows.old\* /R /A /D Y
cacls c:\Windows.old\*.* /T /grant administrators:F
rmdir /S /Q c:\Windows.old
! - If you run into problems such as access
denied or path file not found, try [remember command terminal must be
run as administrator]
cacls c:\Windows.old\*.* /reset /T /C /L /Q
!!!! - When all else fails, use cygwin and remove it with the following:
Open Cygwin as an administrator
cd /cygdrive/c rm -rf Windows.old
