Need to Get Rid of Vista Folders & Files

dfrost · Post by **dfrost** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 2:56 pm

I've got an 'extra' set of Windows and Program folders on the data partition of my hard drive, thanks to something that Vista (Home Premium) did without my asking. Now I can't get rid of them, and Disk Management won't let me format that partition because it sees it as the System drive. (It isn't.)

I really tried to get Vista to work, but it frustrated me excessively, so now I've installed a fresh copy of XP Home (which was refreshingly straightforward).

I'm quite willing to format the Data partition (I have backups), but would really rather keep my nice, new 'OS and Apps' partition as-is, having just finished reloading everything.

Is there something on the Ultimate Boot CD (I've got Version 4.1.1) that will work without disturbing the OS partition? If so please give me detailed instructions, because when I try various options there, I'm getting prompts that are over my head.

murtoz · Post by **murtoz** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:01 pm

you don't even need a boot cd, presuming you have the original windows CD. This will let you delete partitions during the text portion of the setup. It's very straightforward, but I cant remember the exact steps

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:10 pm

Hello,

The files may be part of the User Security settings, or some such malarky -- it is a default setting that can be turned off. Windows copies all of the program INI files and the like and hides them from you. If you edit the copies that you can see, it has no effect on the program, since Windows has so thoughtfully copied them, and then has prevented you from changing them.

I think that if you turn off the setting, those files will go away. I have not used Vista, but I know from being a beta tester (on DataCAD), that this setting play havok with things -- and they have to install the program in the C: drive, rather than in the C:\Program Files\ in order to avoid the issue.