solved How to delete Windows system files from second hard drive

You don't have permission to delete System folder on a second hard drive

[@user-gr5qd5po7h]

Can we appreciate the effort this man put, to speak English

[@ethandoa]

big facts

[@ciownu]

facts, and he made it all really concise and easy to understand. big ups to this guy

[@zuki3264]

God bless him

[@techONchannel]

Hahah lol did my best sorry for terrible english guys

[@ashishranjan5483]

LoL...he speaks better than Donald Trump.

[@billyclement5141]

That, my friend, was a thing of beauty. You have just saved my sanity- this was driving me nuts! Very many thanks.

[@AssassinIronMan]

I looked for this video but it was hard to find because of the dumb KZbin search algorithm

[@prairiebassman]

Thank you so much! I had added a second SSD containing all my files plus the old Windows 7. I had to run your procedure a few times to clear all the old folders, but I finally erased them all.

[@stillsalty9188]

Thanks so much for making this video, it saved me a bunch of time and headache. Just a heads up: my Windows.old folder was 27GB and it took several minutes (~7) for the disk cleanup window to appear after I hit the button. For a while, I thought this technique would not work for me. But when I came back the window was there and worked exactly like he showed it here.

[@prabhdeep__]

Thanks for letting me know I thought It wasn't working

[@ramenhokage8855]

This was exactly what happened to me. I had 2 windows folders and they sized 27gb too. I thought it wouldn't work when it took several minutes to load. But it did.

[@xavieralleyne1763]

Same for me in 2023. Only because I checked the task manager and saw the disk drive was active. Made me realize I needed to wait longer.

[@james2786]

THANK YOU, i tried so many different permission actions and now my computer is a little weird but this finally got rid of the windows file!

[@rubikmonat6589]

Fantastic, thanks. I literally googled for half an hour before finding this. Commenting and liking to bump it up the search algorithm. This solved my problem.

[@aardvark_93]

Thanks for the tip, worked well! This did NOT delete any personal files kept within the drive I was working on (something I was worried about)

[@anythingshorthair2262]

So it'll just gonna delete the Windows folder? Or os then its gonna be like a norman hard drive?

[@aardvark_93]

@@anythingshorthair2262 Yep exactly, it will remove the installation of Windows from that drive! (which you probably don't need anymore, assuming you will continue with your OS on the boot drive) I am currently using my older HD (that had windows) for certain programs and files that I don't feel I need on my main drive! (SSD)

[@christianphillipampoloquio6484]

I have an ssd that I just bought and cloned the OS from my old hard drive. Now that I have finished installing the ssd and set it as primary boot drive, can I format the hard drive? Will it do anything to my laptop?

[@aardvark_93]

@@christianphillipampoloquio6484 I'm definitely not super experienced/familiar with laptops, although it seems probable that it would work out just fine. You should definitely do some more research!

[@Starsnu1]

Thank you so much for making this video. It is way better than the other tips I tried to use so I could remove my old copy of Windows on a previously used drive. Great work!

[@chotachitto]

thanks for the easiest way of disk cleanup. i was searching for days on youtube for this one but found useless ways.

[@shadyprism820]

I don’t normally comment on videos, but this was fantastic. Thank you!

[@alimoong6916]

Wow, you're the man bro! So we just need to trick the system that we are deleting an old Windows installation, in order to delete the existing OS on a spare hard disk drive. Thank you.

[@rul3s1232]

Did you know you still help people since 2018? You sir, rock!

[@Krteto]

I LOVE YOU MAN!! You have no idea how much time and effort i spent on this until i found your video :D Thank you very much

[@CUB-qy2hj]

Just rename the folder from whatever it is to "Windows.old" then follow the instructions int the video . Note pay attention that their is a fullstop after WIndows then old which is lowercase . I used an ssd and installed w10 on it but my old HDD already had w10 so i had to delete it and this video was very helpful. Thanks man

[@tcrenshaw2718]

Thank you! This did exactly what I needed it to do to free up space without losing old pictures that were saved in the user data and the games I had installed from steam to that drive. every other tut I seen wanted me to format the whole drive lol

[@bulidrians2182]

lmao, right ?

[@wickedspyder]

Thank you so much for this; after spending effort trying to change permissions and ownership, I finally was able to delete the old files simply by changing the folder's name and doing a disk cleanup.

[@vidarCRC]

This was of great help, hundreds of GB are back for me to fill them with useless stuff once againg. Thank you friend!

[@usbee100k]

so i’m getting a new pc but i’m loading windows on a new drive. but still using all the data on my current drive that has windows 10 on it. if i did this. windows os will be deleted on this drive but keep alll my files on that drive ??

[@PhantomMods4]

Yes, I just did it and kept my almost terabyte worth of games/mods lmao. This cleaned up so much headache.

[@VexOnTwo]

Excelente. Bem explicado e direto, sem enrolação. Valeu guerreiro!

[@rodman0088]

Thanks a ton, you just saved me almost 11GB. I was using my old SSD as a secondary game drive but it had my old Windows install on it. It would not delete and after renaming it, it showed up in the disk cleanup. Thanks again!

[@Guilherme170199]

THANK YOU GOD. Sotaque de BR kkk

[@ocaradaprofecia]

carioca ainda kkkk

[@falkez1514]

é br pra caralho KKKKKKKKK sabia na hora

[@mouseylikesnuts6437]

Brilliant! Many thanks for this. Much simpler than other options !!

[@emiamerhauser6764]

Here, King. You dropped this 👑

[@deividaslaukionis]

Ma man! 4 years later this video still relevant :P Thank you it really helped... First google search game me stuff with comand prompt which I was too lazy to do, but your tutorial helped! Haha who would have thought that it would be so easy to fool windows by renaming a folder. Thumbs up!

[@solutions4250]

It left some space undeleted for programs files. Why it also can't be deleted

[@ElYoinkySploinky]

Short and quick video with the solution! Thank you, you saved me a headache!

[@tl3234]

Thank you! Finally someone showed the right way!

[@HerecomestheCalavera]

Wow thank you! I never knew about this. I had a second drive with an old Windows Installation on it that wouldn't let me delete any of the system folders. I just renamed Windows,Program Files,Users...etc one by one to Windows.old and ran the disk cleanup and it deleted them no problem. Again thanks a lot, this is a very valuable Windows tip to know!

[@mohamednorat6030]

Thanks for the simple explanation. Never new it was so easy.

[@jukestv4873]

how about the program files and pogram files(86) all fill cant delete

[@angrybees-cd3nw]

Great and short tutorial! Finally got it deleted after trying it many things! Thank you!

[@OweenVRO]

This is perfect. It's something that wouldn't work, but did. Thank you very much!

[@HereIsmarcus]

Brilliant little trick. I've deleted loads of old files now. Thanks !

[@ethownzbh]

Brilliant. Simple, quick and effective. Thank you very much.

[@PhantomMods4]

I wish I found this video hours ago. Somehow reformatting hard drives corrupted my windows and ive been working since last night to find a solution to keep all my files. I put windows on a 120 SSD to boot to and removed the corrupted files by hooking up my 1tb SSD and doing this. Thank you.

[@Nabotics]

NICE! I had renamed the Windows.old folder at some point and none of the other methods were working for me. Renaming it back to Windows.old and using this method worked like a charm.

[@goodcopbadcop7438]

Tysm this removed it easily, it worked quickly too! And got rid of me being annoyed lol

[@gustassprindziunas1512]

What if you reinstalled your Windows 2 times and you want to delete stuff from your 1st one, what should i do?

[@SteaIthyMan]

AFTER HOURS OF SEARCHING I FOUND YOUR VIDEO AND IT WORKED! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@davidmulholland6054]

How do I delete the Program files and Program data folders as it wont let me do that.. same way?

[@RohaanMalik23]

When I try and click 'Clean Up System Files', it never shows up. In task manager, it shows that 'Disk Space Cleanup Manager for Windows' is running, but never shows up

[@BigDaddyDwyer]

big homie came in with the dub.

[@MrGCBrown]

I have tried this, the folder has disappeared but Windows is isn't showing any additional free space?

[@capchaweddings]

I tried so many things in vain. Thanks to your video, did it so easily!! Wish I found it earlier

[@Dragonking1984]

I did all the steps up to after clicking on system clean up the first time. But when i try to bring up the disk cleanup again it won't come up at all & the old window files are still on the drive. update: finally got it to work after going through the steps again. guess it didn't process the commands the first time.

[@faysal4763]

Same is case with me.

[@bitcoinsteve6471]

wow, this worked. Thank you ... This is for when you already have an SSD as your boot drive and you install another SSD and want to turn that into your boot drive. It will not let you delete the old windows for some reason on the first SSD through the normal method of deleting files....BUUUTTTT oh BUTTTT tHiS!! WORKKKSSSS!!!!

[@IsmaelSalazar7]

Holy shit dude, thank you. Absolute hackerman.

[@chim5951]

finally a straight forward video on how to delete this.. thank you good sir

[@Jimmiiii]

So if i upgrade to ssd and reinstall on my ssd can i do this to my current hdd and keep gta rocket league and others on my hdd without deleting/reinstalling all the games

[@spoxe]

yes but get your games on your ssd its worth it man

[@Jimmiiii]

@@spoxe i dont rly wanna fill my ssd up i only have discord chrome and other apps and stuff on there

[@tefooooo1948]

Does this method delete everything from all partitions of the harddrive?

[@Ahxmde]

right after i renamed my "Windows" file to "windows.old" , disk cleanup won't work

[@BackAlleyKnifeFighter]

Thank you! I can't believe deleting the old files would be such a pain in the ass. Even changing permissions wouldn't work!

[@Drky13]

ty the old windows dleted but i want to delete old user,program files,program files (x86) that 3 is annoy me but the 1 is deleted is not working how to delete that 3 left

[@Unstablemx]

Hey mate, did you manage to erase those 2 other Program Files folder? Thank you!!!

[@maxtakuma1971]

thx very much, tried a lot of complicated stuff with permissions and all, and this is an very easy but effective solution!

[@mohammadhatemfawarah5095]

Thank you man, I was looking for this one all the time thank you

[@laimsquad7763]

thx man looked for hours on the internet, this is the best video i found and that actually helped

[@mayur_mahamuni]

Superb man... You saved me from formating by disk.. Keep making good video.

[@pmvoice88]

This worked like magic! Thank you.

[@TheGoodContent37]

Dude, your video was the last step in a very frustrating search that took me hours! Thank you very much!

[@ohexzy4777]

i wana delete only windows and keep my files in will it still work because i dont wana lose them

[@morrenjakobsen93]

Oh Exzy if you rename Windows to Windows.old and then USE disc cleanup, you will only delete your old operating system not your files

[@RSx94]

Thank you. This worked like a charm.

[@antonio1983muffer]

And it worked. Congratulations man

[@orion9526]

Ignore those down-votes! Thank you for solving this problem - I'd tried 10 other ways and your method got it done in seconds.

[@yxl9726]

Thank you bro,i very appreciate it. i wasted 3 hours before finding ur video👍

[@beasttracksph]

24.8gb of unnecessary files showed up. Thanks genius!

[@user-xq7ef1km5g]

Bro u just made my day,u r Just amazing,I was so frustrated as I was so excited to play GTA 5 man you are great!

[@MultiGreety]

Thank you so much. I guess I'm becoming more and more pc illiterate gosh. Couldn't figure it out just by reading and googling.

[@snudge763]

When u delete the previous installation of windows tge partitions in that drive are safe right?

[@NEVER4LONE]

Did it just now, i've renamed the windows folder to "Windows.old" and ran the scan, takes a while. But all of my files are intact, it just removed the windows file. My old users' files are there as well, it's safe to do, 100% recommended.

[@snudge763]

@@NEVER4LONE AWESOME

[@Dsrgreyy]

The one true pepe have you tried this yet? Did it only delete the windows OS and keep everything else?

[@snudge763]

@@Dsrgreyy YES I tried it, its fine

[@Dsrgreyy]

The one true pepe thanks

[@muhammadbehramkhan692]

what if we have deleted the windows folder from the hard drive?

[@asfihaalif]

i dint have windowsold folder what i have to do now ?

[@aghnahusnimubarok9430]

THIS IS SO HELPFULL THANKS ALOT!

[@izikog3549]

YOU GENIUS DAMNN

[@ZeldaGamer1049]

What about every other folder from windows that won't delete then

[@candlegarden-6131]

Almost 2023 and still useful!

[@buccaneerdk]

It was hanging for quite a while at the end of the cleanup, so be patient if someone else experience that :-) And thank you so much sir! What a simple hack. I have no idea how that other windows installation appeared on my storage drive (think it might have been a botched restore attempt), but MAN what a great help this was. So annoying to not be able to get rid of that folder :-)

[@Tempest32_]

Thanks, I thought it wasn't working because it was stuck at the end and I was going to close it, and then I read your comment and decided to wait and it worked.

[@Gamebasic]

You are the hero of the day. this still works I did this today 15 july on windows 11.

[@Dalvis83]

what do you do if you deleted that windowold file

[@gilesbrooks8790]

How would I do this in WIn 11?

[@oDaito_]

Still works to this day thank you man

[@hubbabubbablast]

Everytime I use the method for some reason the files just come back

[@alberttengule5504]

its good having you man ...l want thank you for making this video ,it works 100%

[@dagreenerside]

Thank you man... You a disk space saver

[@fazilnajeeb]

This is genuinely working. Awesome. Thank u sir.

[@goodcopbadcop7438]

I used this to wipe something else and it worked too, its amazing!

[@didistone8482]

Thank you for the help. How do you also delete the program files

[@helaal92]

for a while i thought that my problem is solved after renaming to .old but the windows started cleaning up without i gain any more storage cleaned i preferred to wait till the process end but unfortunately when the clean up finished.... the windows folder disappeared but the free storage still the same i didn't get any more free storage

[@voice6905]

same thing happened with me.. Any solution you found out?

[@matheuscastellar]

Cara... tu me salvou. Eu tinha uma pasta que não excluia de jeito nenhum, tentei forçar exclusão com o iobit unlocker, editar o owner, segurança.... tudo oq vc pode imaginar. a unica coisa que eu conseguia fazer era renomear tentei fazer isso ai e não é q funcionou! kkkk gratidão

[@chrryisunholy]

THIS MAN IS A LIVE SAVER!!!

[@shadwhitefaceg7774]

is it safe to delete the windows file from the second hard drive?

[@user-dm2ip1ml3t]

cool, thanks - so much easier and more effective than the sequence of commands (takeown, icalcs, rd)

[@patrickvanloggerenberg]

when deleting the windows.old folder what about the user files

[@PSilva233]

Sou de portugal e sabia desde cedo que você era brasileiro! Salve cara! Obrigado! :D

[@manoz8523]

omg you saved my storage and my life thanks bro!!

[@EPicat99]

Thank you very much, also I wanna take a guess and say that you have a Portuguese or Brazilian accent ;)

[@milesennium]

This video helped me free up 20gb of space, thank you!

[@dannygummer8745]

Thank you for this video, I will recommend it to anyone who has the same problem :)).

[@iSuRRendeReDuK]

Thanks for this helped me out a treat and so simple.

[@Kevin-zy2xz]

Very quick and helpful. Thanks brother

[@Nina9Robes]

Thank you, this will help a lot.

[@Lucienfi]

Thank you! :D