Help with deleting the "Windows' folder, failed install

[Darcdragon]

Hi there!

I got myself into a bind
After upgrading my MB, the vista install i was running on a Seagate 250 gig HDD failed to load, and this was a dual boot with 2k on a WD 40 gig HDD

So i trashed the 2k install (was planing on doing so anyway), formated the WD , installed Vista clean on it, now would like to trash the windows folder on the Seagate drive to free up room. I have succeeded in trashing some of the folders and files, but am left with 6.18gig of the folder.

With both UAC on and off, it will fail with "You need permission to perform this action"
Yep im admin on this install.

I tried using MoveOnBoot to delete the folder and files. no dice tho.


So, at this point, i have a clean install on 1 drive and on the 2nd a partial install, having removed the users folder and bits an pieces out of the windows folder.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Darc

[Computer Guru]

Hey Darc,

Boot into the Command Prompt from the Vista recovery console, and use the DOS interface to delete that folder - should work.

[Darcdragon]

Thanks!
Its be ages since I did more than an ipconfig in dos

[Computer Guru]

For what it's worth:

C:\Documents and Settings\Computer Guru>del /?
Deletes one or more files.
DEL [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names
ERASE [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names
  names         Specifies a list of one or more files or directories.
                Wildcards may be used to delete multiple files. If a
                directory is specified, all files within the directory
                will be deleted.
  /P            Prompts for confirmation before deleting each file.
  /F            Force deleting of read-only files.
  /S            Delete specified files from all subdirectories.
  /Q            Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to delete on global wildcard
  /A            Selects files to delete based on attributes
  attributes    R  Read-only files            S  System files
                H  Hidden files               A  Files ready for archiving
                -  Prefix meaning not
If Command Extensions are enabled DEL and ERASE change as follows:
The display semantics of the /S switch are reversed in that it shows
you only the files that are deleted, not the ones it could not find.

[Darcdragon]

yep, ended up having to do a rmdir as well to get rid of the empty folders.

thanks again.

[Computer Guru]

You're welcome

Now if only Unlocker would run properly on Vista, there would be no need for any of that!
(the author claims it does, but it doesn't unlock certain files, including Windows.old)