It's time to release HDD from the unnecessary “seven”? There is nothing difficult in this, but many users do not dare to delete it in one fell swoop - simply by formatting the partition, for fear of erasing important data or disrupting the performance of the second OS. And they are right: if you format right away system partition, all of its contents will be irretrievably lost. And it may contain and custom files, and bootloaders of other operating systems, if there are several of them on the computer.
Let's talk about how to demolish Windows 7 safely.
Removing the only operating system Windows 7
How do I uninstall Windows 7 from a PC if there are no other operating systems on it? Before proceeding with the deletion, transfer important data from the system partition to another medium. As a new medium, you can use other sections of the same disc, DVD, flash drive, cloud storage etc.
By default, user data is saved in the folder of his account... It's in the C: Usres section (Drive C, Users folder).
Going there, just copy the directory of your account and paste it on any drive that is suitable in terms of capacity.
The system partition can now be freed. While Windows 7 is loaded, you will not be able to delete its directories and files - first you have to start the computer from another media - Live CD or installation disk any operating system.
So, having booted from the Windows XP Live CD, we can go into disk management, find the partition with the "seven" and format it (formatting, like other operations with the partition, is started from context menu). After that, the partition will be completely cleared of data while preserving the NTFS structure - it, as before, will be visible in Explorer.
If you choose the "Delete Partition" option from the menu, the system partition will turn into an unallocated space, which will also have to be formatted first to use it.
You can also delete data from a partition with Windows 7 by formatting it from under the installation disk. The rest (non-system) sections will not be affected.
Removing the old system (Windows.old folders)
Now let's consider a case when a new operating system was installed on a partition with an old one without preliminary formatting. During Windows installations to the nonfree partition, the installer renames the old Windows directory to Windows.old. The Windows.old folder remains on the PC only as backup data and is not used in any way, so it can be safely demolished.
How do I uninstall Windows 7 from a previous installation? The safest way to do this is through the "Disk Cleanup".
- Going into the "Computer" folder, open the properties of the partition where both systems are installed - the old and the new. Click the Disk Cleanup button on the General tab.
- Click “Clear system files”.
- Check the box “Previous Windows installations”And click OK.
Confirm your consent to delete files and wait for the cleaning to finish. After that Windows.old - the old Windows 7 directory from the previous installation will disappear.
How to remove the "seven" from the multi-system configuration
How to uninstall Windows 7 if multiple operating systems are installed on the PC? This is done in two steps:
- format the section with "seven" according to the instructions given at the beginning of the article;
- remove it from the operating system boot menu.
After you free the partition using formatting, Windows 7 will still be on the boot list.
To remove it from there, load the remaining OS on the computer (to example Windows XP or 8) and log in as an administrator. Run the system configuration utility msconfig.exe through the search.
Restart your computer for the setting to take effect. The “7” will no longer appear on the boot configuration screen.
The partition freed after formatting can be attached to one of the remaining, used to install another operating system or to store data.
Windows operating systems, although they are incredibly popular, still cannot boast of long-term stable operation. So, in some cases, the need for reinstallation arises several times a month - it all depends on the programs with which the user works.
In light of this, it is not surprising that many are interested in the question of how to remove old Windows. The point is that the installation new system on top of the existing old one is highly discouraged, as this rarely allows you to eliminate software bugs and crashes rather add new ones. Starting with the Vista operating system, the developers at Microsoft took into account the wishes of users and added to the installer special opportunity, thanks to which it has become much easier to figure out how to remove old Windows.
Advanced installation mechanism
Before we tell you how to remove old Windows, let's analyze the behavior of the installer on Win XP systems (and more earlier versions) and Vista (and later).
When installing old systems on a partition hard disk, where a copy of the system was already present, the installer prompted the user to make a choice - to erase the existing Windows folder or start installation into a directory with a non-standard name. In both the first and second cases, all data from the "Documents" section, "Desktop" and other key folders were lost. I had to learn how to remove old Windows while preserving the necessary files. With the advent of Vista, the situation changed: the installer, finding a copy of the system, renamed it to Windows.Old, moved all related folders there. The value of this small innovation to end users cannot be overemphasized - it is revolutionary.
How to delete oldWindows 7
Depending on the system being installed, the preparation varies. Let's consider a more complex option, when Win XP is installed on the hard drive. The easiest way to keep any files from your previous system is to prepare the bootable LiveCD media.
There are a lot of these solutions, so there shouldn't be any problems with the choice. Download the LiveCD from the Internet. According to the instructions given with it, write it to a disk / flash drive. Then boot into this mini-system and copy the required data. The next step is to delete the Windows, Program Files folders. If we are talking about Win 7, then you can also erase ProgramData, Users. All that remains is to reboot and start the installation. If installed a new version system, the LiveCD is not needed: after the installation is complete, the disk will contain the Windows.Old directory, where all system data will be transferred. What you need from here must be copied, and the excess must be erased. Removing the remnants of the previous system can be done through the function "Disk Cleanup" in the menu "Start" - "Accessories" - "System Tools", specifying in the list " Previous installations". Sometimes people who want to use the system for free, wonder how to remove the old activator Windows 7. To do this, you need to restart this program and select the uninstall item. Another method is no less effective, which consists in installing a new solution simply on top of the old one. All key links will be automatically overwritten.
After installing a large-scale operating system update in May 2019, the user may notice the loss of more than 10 GB of free space on the hard drive of his PC or laptop. Our size of the occupied space on the HDD has increased by 28.0 GB. Today we are going to show you how to uninstall the previous version of Windows 10 and effectively free up such precious space.
If your computer is equipped with hard disk large volume, you may not notice this unnecessary data. The OS functionality will clear them after 10 days (in the case of a pre-activated option).
Don't want to wait? Then let's get down to business. Attention: manual should be done only if, after the last update, your operating room Windows system 10 version 1903 works as expected.
It is also worth understanding that after freeing up space, you will not be able to return to the old OS assembly. Required files to carry out the recovery process will be deleted.
So, the main object for cleaning is the folder “ Windows.old". See what size it has in file explorer! You do not need to manually delete anything from it, since some system files that are subject to interrelated deletion may be located outside this folder. It is better to turn to the system tools specially created for this by the developers of Microsoft Corporation for help.
HOW TO REMOVE THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF WINDOWS 10
Launch System Options with the Win + I key combination on your keyboard. Next, do the following:
- go to the "System" parameter group;
- click on the "Device memory" section on the left;
- on the right, click on the link "Configure memory monitoring or start it";
- find the subsection "Free up space now";
- check the box “Delete previous versions OS ";
- click the "Clear Now" button.
Attention: first, in the same window, check the settings for deleting files from the Recycle Bin and the Downloads folder! There may be objects you need. If necessary, make them or save them to another location on the disk.
Now, if you need to go back to the previous OS build, you will have to reinstall it from. That's all!
Hopefully our instructions on how to remove the previous version of Windows 10 and add free space hard disk, will help you if necessary. We will be very grateful for your feedback and comments to it. Thank you for the attention!
Sometimes users install new windows 7, but forget to delete the old one. There is nothing critical about this, but the old Windows takes up a lot of space. This article provides information on how to remove old windows 7.
There are several ways to uninstall old Windows:
1. Removing old Windows using Disk Cleanup
You must run Disk Cleanup. You can find it through "Start". We click "All programs", there "Standard", then "Utilities" and in the list we find the required component.
It is the item "Previous Windows installations" that we need. Select the checkbox if it is not there and click OK. To the question about irreversible deletion, we answer "Delete files". After a while, the files old windows 7 will be deleted.
2. Removing old Windows without programs
If the program cannot be found for some reason, or if there are some problems with it, you can remove Windows manually. To do this, we find the folder Windows.old and set the rights necessary for deletion.
Go to the folder properties (RMB - Properties) and go to the "Security" tab
Click on "Advanced". On the "Owner" tab, select the current user and put a check mark on "Change owner of subcontainers and objects" and click "Apply".
Now on the "Permissions" tab, select the account that you made the owner of the folder and change it (the "Change" button)
A window appears with Permission element, where we put a checkmark where it is highlighted in the screenshot below. Then click OK and with a security warning.
After the performed manipulations, it will be possible to delete the Windows.old folder without any difficulty, and the question of how to remove the old Windows 7 is being solved.
3. Removing old Windows by formatting the disk
This method is more radical, but as the saying goes, "fail-safe". The bottom line is that you need to boot from the installation disk or flash drive and start installing a clean Windows. At the time of choosing a disk, you will need to delete all partitions, partition the hard disk again and format all partitions. Thus, we get a clean system, without any sign of old operating systems.
Attention! This method will delete all the data that is on the computer, so it is recommended if you are not sorry for it.
They are not rare. However, not all can remove one of the two operating systems. Some people continue to work with several operating systems at once.
When the "eight" from Windows appeared, not everyone was in a hurry to delete the "seven", the popular solution was the installation of two versions, this made it possible to check the functionality and usability, and, if necessary, remove the unnecessary option. Some remained on the "native" Windows 7, while others opted for the new edition.
There is no point in working with two operating systems at once. Powerful computer allows you to install at least 7 series of OS, memory size hard drives to cope with such a task, but it will not be useful. But on outdated equipment, this will already affect the speed of work, and even freezes are possible. In each case, remove extra Windows from a computer is necessary, but how to do it?
Some users, at the sight of such a problem, are sure that it is easy to solve it, it is necessary to format the partition with an extra OS and the task is completed. In fact, this will not solve the problem, but only hide it, because the bootloader will continue to work. We still need to wipe the OS from the boot window.
Why multiple operating systems on one computer
The choice of operating system boot arises for several reasons:
- In most situations, the problem appears due to the installation of several operating systems on one computer. As already mentioned, some do this to test the operating system, but inexperienced users do it by mistake, after which for a long time they do not even notice the "two-headed" of their PC;
- Another reason why you have to choose the OS every time you boot is the incorrect installation of Windows. When a person forgets to format the hard drive before writing a new OS, the process will take place over the previous Windows.
As a result, a selection window appears at startup, but in fact, only one OS is running on the computer.
The second variant of the problem is not so serious, you can remove the "false" line of the OS from the selection window. Also, the choice of the operating system by boot is excluded by setting the working version by default.
How to remove a second operating system from a computer
If loading every time starts with the choice of the operating system, then this is not critical. Delete operating system from the computer is obtained through the command center. The method is suitable for different versions of Windows(including 7 and 8), and is performed in four stages:
- After turning on the PC, you need to turn on command line(Win and R keys). In the entry line of the Run menu, write the command "msconfig" and confirm the actions by pressing the "OK" button (or press "Enter");
- Then the menu is edited Windows boot 7.
- Before removing the old Windows, you need to select the extra lines (when the operating system was installed a couple of times and did not adhere to the recommendation, then there may be 3-4 lines at once) and delete.
- At the next stage, the application will offer to restart the equipment. The wizards advise not to postpone this action until later, it is necessary for the system to promptly make some changes to the OS boot record.
Now it turns out to delete second Windows 7 at startup, after switching on, a window with two options will no longer appear. By default, the operating system that was installed last will start working (At this time, the previous Windows publishers will no longer exist, there were only entries in the boot window).
You need to be vigilant during formattingAfter it turned out to delete old windows 7 from a computer, a logical question arises of what to do with the partition where the previous OS was stored. It is advised in such situations to simply format the section, and then leave the necessary electronic documents there.
First, you should check everything that is stored there. In particular, there should be folders with program files, user accounts and Windows folder... When the second operating system had to be removed, the partition would not be on drive C.
Important! The procedure will erase all data from memory local disk... For example, if the deletion occurred with system disk C, then all desktop files, My Documents folders, etc. will leave irrevocably.
How to uninstall one of the two operating systems for Windows 7 (no different for version 8)
It is advised to remove the old Windows after installing the new one just by working in the menu of the system that will remain on the computer. The procedure is also possible with old version(a kind of self-removal) but it will be easier this way. For example, when you need to delete the previous Windows versions 7, but leave the figure eight (although the process does not differ between 7 and 8).
You can remove the second Windows 7 at startup along with the section. For this, the function "Disk Management" is suitable, on 8 and 7 Windows it works the same way. First, RMB clicks on the partition to be deleted, then select the "Delete volume" line.
At the final stage, RMB is clicked on the current section and the item "Expand volume" is selectedThus, the memory capacity of the section will increase at the expense of the previous one.
This is how you can remove the operating system through the command line if there are two of them. Even inexperienced owners will be able to remove the second operating system. Still have questions? We ask!
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