Windows won't let me delete old Windows install

[Lyris]

I'm at a total loss with this - I have a hard drive I use for video capture that has two installs off Windows from 2008 on it. I can't delete the old folders no matter what I do:

E:\Windows
E:\2Windows
E:\Users
E:\Program Files

The error is always the same: "Access is denied".

I've tried all the online guides, messed around with NTFS permissions, tried several free delete utilities which don't work, and I've even downloaded a Linux distro and tried to delete it from there - same error!

I'm seriously pissed off... remember the days when you OWNED the hardware you bought? Can anyone advise on how I can reclaim the 15gb of my hard drive that Microsoft have claimed for themselves?

[kryss]

Can't you reformat it?

[kernow]

Delete every partition on the drive?

[Lyris]

I guess I could, but I have a full 400gb or so of data on it so it'd be much more convenient to just delete the folders rather than shift it to another drive temporarily. It's utterly insane that there seems to be no easier way :/

[Kit]

Have you tried expanding the partition you want to reclaim the extra space?

Easeus: http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm

[randombs]

So the folders are on a partition that has 400gb-odd of data that you'd rather not move to another drive?

When you fiddled with permissions, did you try taking ownership of the folders instead of just setting them up so your login had full permissions? When I moved my hard drive out of an old XP laptop to a newer one, I couldn't access the My Documents folder initially (Access denied message) until I took ownership of it. I right-clicked the drive itself and took ownership of the whole lot just in case.

I've been flicking through this for ideas.

I'm not sure how locked down NTFS permissions are, but the fact you tried and failed with Linux would push me more towards possible file system issues, unless the Linux NTFS driver honours existing permissions. Have you tried running CHKDSK on it? Or just right-clicking the drive and doing 'check for errors' (shouldn't need to do the bad sector check unless you feel like it)?

When you tried free delete programs, did you try one called Unlocker? I've used that and it works very well. Dangerously well!

Sorry it's a mish-mash reply, I'm just throwing things out there.

[FelixofMars]

I am going with that its permissions related, I had a dual boot Win 7 and XP machine and to even access Documents and Setting I had to fiddle with the security settings. I am guessing it won't let you delete it either.

[kernow]

If its windows perms related, a linux cd should be fine, maybe you mounted the partition with the read only ntfs driver instead of ntfs-3g (read write)

hmm.

[k0pp0]

ok.. I think it sounds permissions based. You could change the permissions on everything under a folder structure with cacls.exe

something like (from a command prompt) cacls.exe e:\ /T /C /G username:F where username is your login name.

If that don't work, give I a PM..

[djtickle]

I had the same problem, it was permissions. I needed to take ownership and give myself full rights.

[Lyris]

ok.. I think it sounds permissions based. You could change the permissions on everything under a folder structure with cacls.exe

something like (from a command prompt) cacls.exe e:\ /T /C /G username:F where username is your login name.

If that don't work, give I a PM..

K0pp0, here's the result of that command:

C:\Users\LyrisLite>cacls.exe e:\2windows /t /c /g lyrislite:f
Are you sure (Y/N)?y
processed dir: e:\2Windows
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\AppPatch
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Boot
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Branding
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\DigitalLocker
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Downloaded Program Files
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\ehome
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\en-US
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Fonts
processed dir: e:\2Windows\Help
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\IME
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\inf
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\L2Schemas
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Media
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Microsoft.NET
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\MSAgent
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Offline Web Pages
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\Performance
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\PolicyDefinitions
processed dir: e:\2Windows\Provisioning
 ACCESS_DENIED: e:\2Windows\rescache

And so on....

I've tried Unlocker - it doesn't seem to work at all in Windows 7.
Beginning to think copying and nuking(formatting) the drive is the quickest way. How insane...

Kernow: I'll try sacrificing a pointless file under Linux and see if I can delete anything.

[kernow]

Personally I'd probably get the gentoo sysrescue disc and just boot that, then mount the partition with ntfs-3g and you should have full read/write support, then just hose the dirs with rm -rf <dir> each, and unmount the partition after.

Should work, it won't enforce the perms on a different os.

[k0pp0]

K0pp0, here's the result of that command:

[code]C:\Users\LyrisLite>cacls.exe e:\2windows /t /c /g lyrislite:f
Are you sure (Y/N)?y
processed dir: e:\2Win

Right

from a command prompt:

takeown.exe /f e:\2windows /R /D Y

you might need to do this from a command prompt with admin privs, so click start, all programs, accessories right click and run as administrator.

And I've just found this link that tells you the exact same thing, but with a new version of cacls to finish off..

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/take-ownership-of-file-or-folder-windows-7-vista/

[Lyris]

The above helped delete some of the files, but not all. I'm going to offload the files to another drive and format. Thanks for your help, people.

Good grief, Microsoft. Good grief.

[kernow]

you might not be able to move them either