Solved Former C: drive now my E: drive, how to delete old Windows

brucemc777 · Dec 7, 2022

I've done some pretty stupid things thinking that i knew what i was doing over the years and it cost me dearly, so i am playing it cautious and asking for your kind guidance - I took my old 250GB SSD from the prior computer and installed it as a third drive in my new computer. The new computer came with W11 on C:, a new drive D:, and the prior SSD from the older computer is now E:.

E: has an installation of W10 on it. I want to delete that, but W11 is telling me that i need to be TrustedInstaller to do so.

Unlike prior versions, i don't see a "Disk Cleanup" option in the E: properties.

I want to keep all of the other data on E: drive until i am satisfied i do not need anything more from it.

How do i safely delete the Windows 10 installation that still resides on E:?

Many thanks for your knowledge and your help!

Ghot · Dec 7, 2022

brucemc777 said:
I've done some pretty stupid things thinking that i knew what i was doing over the years and it cost me dearly, so i am playing it cautious and asking for your kind guidance - I took my old 250GB SSD from the prior computer and installed it as a third drive in my new computer. The new computer came with W11 on C:, a new drive D:, and the prior SSD from the older computer is now E:.

E: has an installation of W10 on it. I want to delete that, but W11 is telling me that i need to be TrustedInstaller to do so.

Unlike prior versions, i don't see a "Disk Cleanup" option in the E: properties.

I want to keep all of the other data on E: drive until i am satisfied i do not need anything more from it.

How do i safely delete the Windows 10 installation that still resides on E:?

Many thanks for your knowledge and your help!

Do one of these....
None of these options will save the "data" on the E: drive if it is on the Windows 10 partition.
If the data is on the Windows 10 partition... then just leave Windows 10 on there, until you get everything you need.

1
Boot the computer into Windows 11 (C: drive)
Get the free program: Minitool Partition Wizard. Install it.
Use Minitool Partition Wizard to delete all the Windows 10 partitions on the E: drive.

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

As an all-in-one free partition manager and disk manager software, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free helps manage disk space safely on Windows 11/10/8/7.

www.partitionwizard.com

===========================================================================

2
IF... it still won't let you do that, then get this older version and burn the ISO to a CD, or use RUFUS to make a bootable USB stick with this ISO.
Then, boot from this older version and delete all the partitions on the E: drive.

Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy way

rufus.ie

You should make a bootable version of this older version, anyway just for future problems like this.
It will allow you to do all kinds of things to Disks, that you can't do from within Windows.

However you do it... boot from this older version of Minitool and use it to delete whatever is on the E: drive.

============================================================================

3
Another way to do it, is to use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to create a bootable Windows 11 install USB stick.
Then boot from that, and use that to delete all the partitions on the E: drive.

Create Windows 11 Bootable USB Installation Media

This tutorial will show you how to create a bootable USB flash drive used to install Windows 11 with UEFI support. You can use a Windows 11 installation USB flash drive to clean install, upgrade, reset, or repair Windows 11. The installation USB can also be used as a recovery drive to boot to...

www.elevenforum.com

johnlgalt · Dec 7, 2022

Alternatively, you can use the native diskpart utility to clean the drive directly from windows, no third party tool required.

See this tutorial at our sister site 10 Forums (applies to Windows 11 as well).

Erase Disk using Diskpart Clean Command in Windows 10

How to Erase a Disk using Diskpart Clean Command in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

It is commandline based, so if you're uncomfortable with commandline, the above tool is GUI based and a lot easier (and more user friendly) to use.

NavyLCDR · Dec 7, 2022

johnlgalt said:
Alternatively, you can use the native diskpart utility to clean the drive directly from windows, no third party tool required.

See this tutorial at our sister site 10 Forums (applies to Windows 11 as well).

Erase Disk using Diskpart Clean Command in Windows 10

How to Erase a Disk using Diskpart Clean Command in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

It is commandline based, so if you're uncomfortable with commandline, the above tool is GUI based and a lot easier (and more user friendly) to use.

Given the following statement made in the OP, I would not suggest using diskpart's clean command:

brucemc777 said:
I want to keep all of the other data on E: drive until i am satisfied i do not need anything more from it.

The biggest question is: is the data you desire to keep in the same partition as the Windows installation? If yes, you do not want to use MiniTool to delete that partition either because your data will go with it.

Ghot · Dec 7, 2022

@brucemc777

It would make it easier for us to give you specific directions if you post a screen shot of Disk Management.

How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management

How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management at Ten Forums

www.tenforums.com

Ghot · Dec 7, 2022

brucemc777 said:
I want to keep all of the other data on E: drive until i am satisfied i do not need anything more from it.

If by this you mean data that's mixed in with Windows 10... like bookmarks, Office files, game save files, things in the pictures, videos, music, documents folders...

Then just leave Windows 10 on the E: drive until you get any of those things you want.

Then after you get everything you might want... you can just "delete" everything on the E: drive.

brucemc777 · Dec 7, 2022

Much appreciated, everyone! Yes, it is one big partition for that entire drive of data space. I only want to blow away the folder E:\Windows and all it's sub-folders.

Ghot · Dec 7, 2022

brucemc777 said:
Much appreciated, everyone! Yes, it is one big partition for that entire drive of data space. I only want to blow away the folder E:\Windows and all it's sub-folders.

Deleting E:\Windows probably isn't a good idea till you get everything you want from the E: drive.

OAT · Dec 7, 2022

Another solution would be to take ownership of that folder altogether. Browse thru it, take the things you might want and simply delete it afterwards.

takeown /f e:\windows /R from cmd.exe and screens of files will show for a while.

KevTech · Dec 7, 2022

Since it is no longer his boot drive perhaps you just need to mark the partition inactive.

brucemc777 · Dec 7, 2022

You folks are great!!!

brucemc777 · Dec 8, 2022

So i have verified ALL needed data is migrated, blew out the volume and reset it.

One thing really confuses me and it happens to be the source of my last extreme disaster back in 2012 - this drive, (E:), was assigned as Disk 0. My 2TB disk was assigned Disk 1 and my actual OS drive as Drive 2.

What i did in 2012 in trying to clean things up with a new upgrade of Windows at the time (if you haven't already seen the train wreck coming) was to blow away the partition on, relative to this case, Drive 2, presuming that Drive 0 would naturally be my OS drive where what i thought was the old version of Windows, and ALL of my data, including years of family pictures. Then i re-formatted that one. I think i also re-partitioned it before reformatting it again. Even two paid for services couldn't recover the data (then how does the gov't do it???).

It simply does not make a heck of a lot of sense to me as i would think the OS would be on Drive 0 in a single OS system. Is there a way to easily change these around so the drive with the OS is shown as Drive 0, or best i "simply" get used to a new way of making sense out of things?

NavyLCDR · Dec 8, 2022

In order to change the drive numbers in disk management ( and diskpart) you have to change which ports the drives are physically connected to. And if you are mixing M.2 drives with standard SATA drives, it may be impossible to get the M.2 drive down to disk 0.

brucemc777 · Dec 8, 2022

Many thanks! I guess there are bigger problems to live with...

kelper · Dec 8, 2022

I wish all posters were this good. Lots of clear info upfront and responded quickly to suggestions

@brucemc777 I hope you use Macrium Reflect for all your backups? Reflect Free Edition

brucemc777 · Dec 8, 2022

@kelper - Thank you, and i will have to have a look at Macrium!

kelper · Dec 8, 2022

brucemc777 said:
@kelper - Thank you, and i will have to have a look at Macrium!

I must have reinstalled Windows hundreds of times over the years dur to fiddling with it.

My current laptop only use about 60Gb. Id I screw up, I can completely restore from a Macrium backup in ten minutes.

For high-spec processors, even large Windows installations can be backed up and restored in just minutes.

As we now keep so much data in the cloud it's only necessary to backup weekly or less frequently.

Macrium Reflect is very popular with forum users.

brucemc777 · Dec 8, 2022

Sure wish they would have one of those charts to show the difference between the Home and the Free versions... :) Will just have to keep reading-

kelper · Dec 8, 2022

The free version does everything a home user needs, but it will no longer get updates.

Many of us here on the forum have used the free version for years and have now paid for a four-license , lifetime license because they wish to support the company.

The free version will work safely for many years so don't be put off.

If you like it, Macrium Reflect Home, for four devices is on offer at half price

Ghot · Dec 8, 2022

brucemc777 said:
Sure wish they would have one of those charts to show the difference between the Home and the Free versions... :) Will just have to keep reading-

The main difference, is that the Free version doesn't have... Image Guardian
Also the free version doesn't make Incremental or Differential backups. I don't remember which.

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