Deleting Windows folders from a drive that is not running windows on the machine? (1 Viewer)

[njlarsen]

I had a HD I tried to use for windows on a pc. However, it is now the second Hd on a machine that runs Win11. I want to remove the folders made by win10 on that HD, but am told I need permission from “trusted installer “ or something similar. How can I do that? My user account is the only one on this pc.
Niels

 

[Ted Y.]

Is the pc personal, not in a network?
Are you Windows Administrator?
If not possible to delete, it is acceptable to format the HD?

 

[njlarsen]

I am administrator. I am wondering if it is MacAfee security which is acting up - it was installed and will soon need to be gone, I am not going to pay for it.

It is my personal Pc, I think I set it up to be discoverable, but it is not administered by someone else.

I have copied a lot of other files onto the HD, so formatting is an absolute last resort
Niels

 

[njlarsen]

I made a search in the web for the error message. I saw something about giving myself ownership to a folder and tried it. That seemed to work, so now I get the following error message where it tells me that I need to give permission : but no hint about how I can do that.
Niels

 

[THE_FERN]

Sometimes I find dos lets you remove things that the windows file manager will not. If you start a command prompt in administrator mode you can take it from there

 

[Ted Y.]

Verify the user NJ-DESKTOP\njlar have Full control (in Security tab of Properties) . If not, use the Adminitrator to give all available permissions.
Connect with this user and delete the folder.
If is not working, use Adminitrator user to give Administrators all permissions and the ownership and proceed .

 

[njlarsen]

I have given myself full permissions and even then it comes up with this nonsense about needing to give permissions. There is no dialog box to do so!

Niels

 

[njlarsen]

Sometimes I find dos lets you remove things that the windows file manager will not. If you start a command prompt in administrator mode you can take it from there

Unfortunately, does not work either.

 

[Ted Y.]

Sometimes can be a nightmare.

maybe the folder is read-only?
(in General tab)
Or:

How to Delete Files and Folders Using Command Prompt on Windows 10

A single command can delete any file or folder you want!

www.howtogeek.com

Use /f as described

 

[Ted Y.]

https://petri.com/using-powershell-to-delete-files-and-folders/

 

[njlarsen]

I cannot get that to work either. I can take ownership of a folder with about 10 clicks and then apply that to each file with about 5 more and when I have done that I can get delete to work.

By the way, McAfee is deleted from the system, now running Windows defender.
Niels

 

[njlarsen]

I finally figured out how to apply ownership change to nested folders. That helped!
Niels

 

[njlarsen]

Update: unfortunately does not seem to work if the nested folders are read only. And I cannot set the folders away from read only without ownership which I can only do one at a time. So a pain in the ass unless someone has other ideas I have not tried.
Niels

 

[THE_FERN]

Update: unfortunately does not seem to work if the nested folders are read only. And I cannot set the folders away from read only without ownership which I can only do one at a time. So a pain in the ass unless someone has other ideas I have not tried.
Niels

Powershell or VB script if not dos ought to be able to accomplish this. The dos syntax might be a bit painful in comparison with the others, or you could do it long hand by first listing all the items, putting the list in a spreadsheet, using concatenation to create the dos statements, then save to .BAT

 

[njlarsen]

I have so far not gotten Powershell to help with this problem. Not sure how to do the others.
Niels

 

[Ted Y.]

New ideas:
Do you have a friend working IT, Systems? If yes, ask for help.

Decide if you want to do battle with PowerShell or DOS scripts or you want results.
For results, I would copy the file somewhere safe and format the HD. Maybe on the other HD in computer. Maybe on an external SSD, but not a USB key, because of low-speed transfer.

 

[Ted Y.]

I have so far not gotten Powershell to help with this problem. Not sure how to do the others.

If you can not solve with PowerShell, all hope is lost from scripts point of view. My opinion.

Edit:
How many partition has the second HD, the one with the folders to be deleted?

Remove any external HD, SSD, USB key or photo card. This is important.
Click on "This PC", right click, "Manage". Click "Disk Management". Ignore Disk0, it is the OS disk.
It is Disk1 you are interested in.

 

[Ted Y.]

Ideas are easy.
Effectve ones are difficult to identify.

Another idea:
Boot a Linux external media and try delete from there.
If such media is already available, sure. And you trust it.

 

[njlarsen]

Sounds like it might end up being less time copying the content somewhere else, format the disk, and reapply the content?
Niels