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Main Area and Open Discussion => General Software Discussion => Topic started by: Curt on March 04, 2012, 02:11 PM
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Restoring my documents from the cloud based backup, I noticed that my new Win 7 was running out of free space many days too soon, so to speak. I knew that the "overwritten" Vista still is around on my PC, because at boot-up I am offered to log in to it, (but it will only give me a black screen and send me on to Win 7), and I knew it is placed in a folder named Windows.old, but only now have I realized it is taking up a whopping 341GB. Not good!!
How can I safely get rid of Vista and Windows.old ? :tellme:
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I would reinstall just to be safe. But that is just me. You never know what is tied in there.
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-you may very well be right. Because at boot-up I am greeted by Fujitsu, which was the company behind the Vista, but the new Win 7 comes from a Dell disc. So I guess the old Vista still is some kind of command - giving weird situations if I remove Windows.old which must be including Fujitsu stuff.
:tellme:
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According to MS Windows.old is safe to delete ... Assuming you recovered all of the files (and/or registry settings) from it that you may want to save.
Easiest option is to just rename it to basically anything, and then reboot to see if you get any complaints. No complaints = safe to delete.
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-will try at once. If you don't hear from me, you'll know why...
:huh:
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Joker experiences guilt in 5... 4... 3...
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Easiest option is to just rename it to basically anything, and then reboot to see if you get any complaints. No complaints = safe to delete.-Stoic Joker
well, I must admit, you said "easiest" not "safest".
I renamed it, and rebooted, and now it is gone!!! :(
Why am I not happy? Because it is gone, but still taking up 341GB!!!!!!
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Boot into a Live version of any Linux build, locate the folder, eradicate the folder, reboot into
winblows windows?
Worth a shot if nothing else :)
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How can you know how big it is when it is gone?
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Okay,one more reboot and it became visible. And shift+deleted. Now I will reboot again, and everything will be okay. Okay?
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Free space, Tuxman
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So what makes you assume the folder which is gone is taking the space?
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Could still be marked as present in the disk bitmap - run chkdsk c: /f to check the bitmap.
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wow, it took 50 minutes to delete that folder!
But I have now re-booted again, and all is well.
Thanks!
But I can still choose to try to boot into Vista
:tellme:
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You have to edit boot.ini to remove that entry.
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check in msconfig, see if its left a boot option in there
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Are you people speaking English?
:-[
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Are you people speaking English?
:-[
-Curt
Press Start, Type 'msconfig' (without the '') and hit enter...choose the boot tab...and if you see "Windows Vista" simply press "Delete" on it :) - I dunno if this will cause any errors with your system though so, somebody else may wanna confirm this for you :)
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if you see "Windows Vista" simply press "Delete" on it :) - I dunno if this will cause any errors with your system though so, somebody else may wanna confirm this for you :)
-Stephen66515
-I must admit I am nervous about this, because of:
at boot-up I am greeted by Fujitsu, which was the company behind the Vista, but the new Win 7 comes from a Dell disc.-Curt
:tellme:
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DISCLAIMER: Stephen66515 assumes all responsibility and liability for your actions! ;-)
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hahaha ;D
I will probably try Stephen66515's suggestion just because of this. :-\
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DISCLAIMER: Stephen66515 assumes all responsibility and liability for your actions! ;-)
-Josh
:huh: :( >:( :mad: :nono2:
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Neither vista not windows 7 use boot.ini.
They both use bcdedit from a command prompt to edit the boot process. Not for the faint hearted!
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Press Start, Type 'msconfig' (without the '') and hit enter...choose the boot tab...and if you see "Windows Vista" simply press "Delete" on it -Stephen66515
-perfect, Stephen66515, thank you :up:
and Thank you all :Thmbsup:
I am now free of the extra, black screen where I should choose between W7 and Vista.
Quite Interestingly I am still greeted by Fujitsu, not by Dell.
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Quite Interestingly I am still greeted by Fujitsu, not by Dell.
-Curt
Why would you be greeted by Dell? You don't have a Dell. Just because the disk you used to install Win7 came from a Dell, it doesn't turn your machine into a Dell. You will still display the Fujitsu stuff on boot because it's still a Fujitsu machine, still has the bios supplied by Fujitsu. That logo displays before Windows even begins to load.
If you really hate that logo, there might be an option in the bios to display post messages or extended post messages. Selecting that might get rid of it. If not, you'll have to replace the motherboard supplied by Fujitsu. I don't suggest you go messing around in the bios unless you know what you are doing, though. Great way to really screw up a computer if you don't.
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-thank you for the explanation, April. Yes, there are so many other ways I can screw up my PC... oh, dear, so many threads I have created, asking for help - this being one of them. No, I am actually pleased with Fujitsu displaying their logo,..., because I like Dell even less!
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Depending on the age of the computer you might be able to find a tool for inserting a new image in the the BIOS then you could create "Curt's Computer" logo.
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-just now, this minute, I was installing 64-bits Nitro Pdf, and was informed by Windows that "This program is not a genuine 32-bits program".
Do you see the problem? The new Dell disc is W7 64-bits, so Fujitsu VISTA 32-bits is still governing this computer! Oh, damned! I have been downloading 24/7 for three days; Will I really need to wipe it all out and begin all over? Seems like it, to me.
:tellme: :tellme:
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Sounds like a good plan - upgrades are never a good idea and even MS say side by side installs on the same disk are not advised.
Backup you data, bite the bullet and format your hard disk completely (in Windows 7 install use the tool to delete all the partitions and let it rebuild the new partitions you need so you start clean).
If it isn't a silly question how exactly did you manage to install a Dell copy of Windows 7 onto a Fujitsu computer - I though Dell windows disks looked at the BIOS for activation and would only install on Dell hardware?
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If it isn't a silly question how exactly did you manage to install a Dell copy of Windows 7 onto a Fujitsu computer - I though Dell windows disks looked at the BIOS for activation and would only install on Dell hardware?
-Carol Haynes
I bought a Dell copy of Win7 end of last summer and installed it on a custom built machine no problem. I've seen one Dell logo somewhere (cant remember where).
At some stage there was a court case here (.de) that said that you could install oems on any machine. I dont know did that have any influence on the actual install discs...
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-the salesman said it would install without any questions, and he was right.
I will need to purchase a cable to move the downloaded backup files from the desktop to the laptop - moving is faster, than downloading from Livedrive. So I must be on my way at once; it is almost closing time around here.
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I thought OEM disks from manufacturers like Dell could only be sold to their own customers for restoring their own factory built systems and had to be customised according to the terms of the OEM license precisely to stop them being installed on other hardware.
Buying OEM disks through Amazon etc. is a different issue and they are identical to the standard retail DVDs - except the license number is encoded so that MS don't provide support.
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-the salesman said it would install without any questions, and he was right.
I will need to purchase a cable to move the downloaded backup files from the desktop to the laptop - moving is faster, than downloading from Livedrive. So I must be on my way at once; it is almost closing time around here.
-Curt
If you have an external drive use Windows Easy Transfer Wizard to backup your data and then double click the package on the new computer to restore it - pretty quick way of doing it.
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I thought OEM disks from manufacturers like Dell could only be sold to their own customers for restoring their own factory built systems and had to be customised according to the terms of the OEM license precisely to stop them being installed on other hardware.
-Carol Haynes
That's correct. There used to be ways of getting around the vendor's hardware lock. But it was always a hassle and generally not worth it. It's also become more difficult with each post XP SP2 version of Windows to do so. So I wouldn't be surprised if it's no longer possible.
Manufacturers are also getting a lot stricter about selling restoration OS DVDs. Almost all manufacturers now require serial numbers off the computer and user registration before they'll ship you one of their disks. No name/serial match? Sorry. No disks for you!
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I thought OEM disks from manufacturers like Dell could only be sold to their own customers for restoring their own factory built systems and had to bcustomizeded according to the terms of the OEM license precisely to stop them being installed on other hardware.
-Carol Haynes
That's correct. There used to be ways of getting around the vendor's hardware lock. But it was always a hassle and generally not worth it. It's also become more difficult with each post XP SP2 version of Windows to do so. So I wouldn't be surprised if it's no longer possible.
Manufacturers are also getting a lot stricter about selling restoration OS DVDs. Almost all manufacturers now require serial numbers off the computer and user registration before they'll ship you one of their disks. No name/serial match? Sorry. No disks for you!-40hz
Um... Not exactly. The Branded OEMs are customized as to what they will (brand) hardware they will activate on ... But they will install on anything. I've got a set of Dell (because they are the cleanest) install disks that range from XPSP3 to Win7, and have used them to install on machines from all sorts of different manufacturers (Acer, HP, eMachine, etc...) and never had a problem as long as the COA was for the edition being installed...and was still legible.
Dell disks will only self activate on Dell hardware ... But they will install and activate on anything if you have a valid COA product key. Which is probably why they are so tight about giving them out (as it makes 'upgrading' rather flexible...)
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I was installing 64-bits Nitro Pdf, and was informed by Windows that "This program is not a genuine 32-bits program".-Curt
hmm... always check and double-check; the Nitro installer was corrupted; not full size.
My system is 64-bits all right.
But I think I will go on and re-format and re-install.
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Um... Not exactly. The Branded OEMs are customized as to what they will (brand) hardware they will activate on ... But they will install on anything. I've got a set of Dell (because they are the cleanest) install disks that range from XPSP3 to Win7,
-Stoic Joker
SJ, what do you mean by cleanest?
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SJ, what do you mean by cleanest?-techidave
Dell has the least amount of branding garbage added to the install disk. Basically just a single folder on the C: drive and a shortcut in the start menu.
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Um... Not exactly. The Branded OEMs are customized as to what they will (brand) hardware they will activate on ... But they will install on anything. I've got a set of Dell (because they are the cleanest) install disks that range from XPSP3 to Win7, and have used them to install on machines from all sorts of different manufacturers (Acer, HP, eMachine, etc...) and never had a problem as long as the COA was for the edition being installed...and was still legible.
-Stoic Joker
@SJ - Good to know. I've had Sony and Gateway disks refuse to install for me if booted on non-manufacturer machines. Same goes for a few HP and eMachine CDs I have. Wonder if that's just an anomaly I've experienced, or if they're doing something new? Also needed to order Viao disks for a client and had to get into a long phone conversation with Sony to get them because I didn't have the correct serial number they wanted about a year ago.
Maybe they're lightening up now that XP's on it's way out? (Although you did say Win 7 too didn't you?)
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Out of curiosity...how did you get around the product activation issue?
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Out of curiosity...how did you get around the product activation issue?-40hz
I didn't per se ... It just reverts to (psudo) retail behavior with a Activate Windows prompt, followed by a Rejected Product Key message that lets you enter a new key ... which I just grabbed off the COA label on the machine in question. It then activates, done. ;)
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Out of curiosity...how did you get around the product activation issue?-40hz
I didn't per se ... It just reverts to (psudo) retail behavior with a Activate Windows prompt, followed by a Rejected Product Key message that lets you enter a new key ... which I just grabbed off the COA label on the machine in question. It then activates, done. ;)
-Stoic Joker
Aha...
Thx. Adding it to my KB.
No hassles with GA when accessing WSUS afterwards I take it?
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Yep, the branded OEM discs look for the proper SLIC in the OEM BIOS and will automatically activate if found. If not, they just gracefully revert back to the standard retail activation method & will act like a retail version of Windows thereafter.
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No hassles with GA when accessing WSUS afterwards I take it?-40hz
Nope...clean as a whistle they are.