hard drive issue.....HELP

[glocktoys]

ok i had a laptop dielast year and pulled the hard drive. i purchased ausb cable to use the 500gb hd as a back up and pull info off it. i wanted to delete the windows and associated directories to free up room but it wont let me delete the directories. how can i do this? it had windows 7 from gateway and running windows 7 on my new toshiba. any help would be great.

 

[Mak]

save info you want to keep from it onto another drive then reformat drive (will delete everything) then it will be ready for use as backup drive

 

[Lammchop93]

I am not 100% sure on this, but I believe you must format it to remove windows off of it. Formatting it will delete everything, so if there are other files on it you want to keep, save them to a computer that you can put back onto the harddrive after you format it.

 

[ag563]

+1 to what Mak said. That should work.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Woah... this is a first... ah heck, I'll shut up before I get in trouble... but I'm certain I'm not the only one thinking it...

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I've done some pretty weird crap with HDs. Unless M$ has done something even stupider than usual, it shouldn't matter if the "operating system" (quotes in lieu of purple) is present; you should be able to retrieve wanted files and reformat the drive, then use it like a French whore.

 

[perry]

What's the error when you try to delete things?

 

[Cpl. Klinger]

It's more than likely due to file permissions. When the drive is from another computer, the files are "owned" by someone else, so the current machine may not have the rights to delete the files. Try the info here --> I am having trouble deleting my Windows.old folder due to file - Microsoft Community to change the permissions on the folders and allow Windows to delete the files/folders.

 

[Yeah]

Windows 7 respects file permissions based on GUID/SID. Since you have the drive connected to a new install the GUIDs authorized to delete those directories don't exist.

Download a Linux live CD from Ubuntu or someone, boot your laptop from that, and delete whatever you want.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Yeah, you'd know it would be M$ pretending to be grown up about something, and screwing it up in its inimitable manner.

 

[Cpl. Klinger]

Windows 7 respects file permissions based on GUID/SID. Since you have the drive connected to a new install the GUIDs authorized to delete those directories don't exist.

Download a Linux live CD from Ubuntu or someone, boot your laptop from that, and delete whatever you want.

Or, you could do a little command line work in windows and do the same thing.

 

[glocktoys]

ok thanks. 3.5 hours to copy stuff off it (425 gig) and format and now another 3.5 hours to move it back (trying to save time if i could). thanks for the input and should have tried the linex boot cd idea and deleted the directories that way). thanks again