How do I delete Windows-created backup files?

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aristide1
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How do I delete Windows-created backup files?

Post by aristide1 » Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:12 am

Such as Windows.old.001? Even Admin does not have enough authority. What kind of nonsense is that? This is a Vista 32 bit Business Box.

Thanks
Aris

m1st
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Post by m1st » Sat Mar 06, 2010 11:20 am

Have you tried taking ownership of the folder? Right-click the folder, then go to Security>Advanced>Owner. Then under the "Change owner to:" area, select yourself as the owner, then check the box that says "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects". Then OK out of everything, and you should be able to do anything you want to the folder, barring some other program using the folder when you're trying to delete it.

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Sat Mar 06, 2010 12:09 pm

Admin has FULL control. I logged on as Admin and I get errors on specific files, DLLs, EXEs, etc.

m1st
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Post by m1st » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:36 pm

Full control is different than ownership. I would still try to change ownership to your user. It's worth a try, anyways...

corrion
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Post by corrion » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:50 pm

I have a command prompt script that changes the ownership of the files to the current administrator. Just run one line after the other:

takeown /f %1 /r /d y
icacls %1 /grant administrators:F /t

Replace %1 with the drive of your choice, so for C: it would be:

takeown /f C: /r /d y
icacls C: /grant administrators:F /t

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:55 pm

It sort of gave me ownership but some things it's still not happy about.

I just thank God this isn't Vista 64 bit. :x

corrion
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Post by corrion » Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:07 pm

You could also just boot into a live Linux environment and then just delete the folder like that.

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:14 pm

I eventually found it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933212

Hey, I recovered 12GB from this, and another 1.5GB from other trash files.

Thanks for the help people.

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