Cannot delete folder, going insane

Hi,

I recently installed a new SSD (SSD1) and installed a fresh install of Windows 11 onto it. I boot from SSD1 into Windows 11. Everything is working great in that respect. I kept my old SSD (SSD2) inside the PC too, which has Windows 10 installed on it still. In fact, it's pretty much as I left it - I could boot into it if I wanted (I don't). Windows 11 detects it fine, allowing me to copy across music and other files.

However

I would like to delete the old Windows 10 and Program Files folders from my old SSD2. I do not need or want boot from it any more and would like to only keep my Music and Pictures folder on it. It doesn't need Windows 10, or Windows on it anymore at all. I try to delete them from having booted into SSD1 Windows 11.

Every time I try to delete these two folders (having booted into Windows 11 on SSD1), and others which also used to be important, I get the following error; 'Folder Access Denied - youll need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder'. Clearly it's set as important, understandably. I am one of only two users on my PC and have an administrator account. The other is my wife with a normal user account (not admin). I can click the Continue button with the shield icon to provide admin permission... but I get another error. 'Folder Access Denied - you require permission from i9-999\Zaarin to make changes to this folder.

Zaarin is me. That's my user account. So I'm kind of concerned I don't seem to have full control of my own computer.

All I can click is try again or cancel. Any ideas? I'm going insane.

I've clicked and looked at the Security settings for this folder (see attached picture) and it looks like I and other administrators have full control, but I'm not too sure what I'm looking at. Special Permissions maybe? They all seem to be selected. I am not sure.

(PS: I realise I could probably, although I haven't tried, move the data I want to my other drive, format SSD2, and then put it back again, but that's not the point. What is going on with my permissions???)

Have you tried giving yourself permissions (I9-9900\Zaarin), not the admin group? Try this:
Other options would be to reset permissions or to use a dedicated software for removal.

1) If you want to delete system folders, you'll have to do it after logging in to the other drive (log into W11, then delete the folders in the W10 installation). Frankly, I've never tried doing that, but I think it should work. If not, try taking ownership of those folders while still in W11 and see if that helps.

2) Even easier - if you don't need Windows on the old drive, copy the folders you want to keep to another drive, format the old drive, then copy the folders back. It will make a nice storage drive. You can even use it as the destination location for disk imaging (which I'm sure you are doing, right? )

The problem is that what was "Administrators" on the old installation is a different set of users than the Administrators on your new installation. You need to grant yourself access to the files on the old SSD via NTFS file permissions because the new administrators don't have access to the files on the old drive.

You can take ownership of all files on that other SSD and grant permission to yourself by running the commands below.

NOTES:

1) Be careful - The installation of Windows on that SSD will likely no longer run correctly because you are grabbing ownership of everything and taking it away from "system".

2) In the commands below I assume that the drive in question is D:. Change as needed for your situation. If you only need access to certain folders and don't want to mess with the installation of Windows, specify those folders in place of D:\*.* so that you are not affecting the entire drive.

3) Make sure you are logged on with an admin account when yu run these commands.

C:\windows\system32\takeown /f "D:\*.*" /r /d y icacls "D:\*.*" /T /grant %username%:F

EDIT: I went back and re-read your post. Since you no longer need to boot from the old drive, you should be okay to run the above commands on the entire drive. Simply substitute the correct drive letter in place of the "D" in both commands.

I'm thinking out loud here --

1. Move the files you want to keep to the new SSD temporarily (or an external drive or another PC)
2. Completely erase and reformat the old SSD
3. Move the 'keeper' files back

?

allan said:

2) Even easier - if you don't need Windows on the old drive, copy the folders you want to keep to another drive, format the old drive, then copy the folders back.

Click to expand...

Ditto - it seems the most logical solution to what the user wants to do.

To gain more space on the #2 drive, after copying what needs saving go to Disk Management and delete the partitions. Downside is Windows won't be able to delete the small partitions, I boot a Linux LiveUSB or GPARTED LiveCD to manage partitions when Windows can't. Then I create New Volume and format.

You've got several variations of the same theme here, and they all will do what you want to do. Copy your W10 Music and Pics folders to somewhere else (a new folder on your Disk1 would be easiest, perhaps), and then use W11 Disk Management on Disk2. What disk management can't do, you can easily do with the Free edition of MiniTool Partition Wizard. Good luck, but you won't need it.

The Pool Man said:

I'm thinking out loud here --

1. Move the files you want to keep to the new SSD temporarily (or an external drive or another PC)
2. Completely erase and reformat the old SSD
3. Move the 'keeper' files back

?

Click to expand...

The OP acknowledged that they already know that this could be done in the original post but noted that this is not the point.

Just to expand on my previous post, because I realize I may not have made the point 100% clear...

Suppose that on the old installation of Windows you had a user named "Administrator". One the new Windows installation you also have a user named "Administrator". Bear in mind that these are two entirely different users. Further, the groups that they belong to (the Administrators group, for example), are two entirely different groups because they came from different systems.

Actually, @hsehestedt, he had some doubts about whether that could be done, so I think it's good that he has a lot of encouragement here to the effect that it can be done, and easily.

zaarin_2003 said:

I realise I could probably, although I haven't tried, move the data I want to my other drive, format SSD2, and then put it back again

Click to expand...

But I do understand and appreciate your efforts to update his misconceptions about permissions and ownership.

hsehestedt said:

The OP acknowledged that they already know that this could be done in the original post but noted that this is not the point.

Click to expand...

Both in my Mac years (29) and my PC years (8 and counting) I've watched myself and others waste GOBS of everyone's time trying to dial down to exactly how to fix a very specific problem.

Recently I committed this 'crime' by asking y'all to help me get my Pictures folder back where it belonged. This fine crew offered all sorts of sideways solutions that all kinda sorta worked but also didn't achieve the ultimate goal. Once I faced I had to do a reinstall and murder OneDrive ASAP, I saved many man (and womam) hours.

Most companies that offer PC support say the words "Backup and reinstall" so fast it's scary. There's a reason for this. Just because you fixed one part of the system doesn't mean there isn't other stuff lurking. It's very drastic and painful when it's your main PC but if this is just an SSD it's really a waste of time to 'get to the bottom of it' where a wipe and restore will stop the 'insane' now.

zaarin_2003 said:

I'm kind of concerned I don't seem to have full control of my own computer

Click to expand...

@The Pool Man

Agreed. There's not much point to fighting the way Windows installations work at considerable length, when a simple reinstallation will take care of the battle for you.

@zaarin_2003

You definitely do not have full control of your own computer. So long as you're running Windows, MS can do just about anything it wants to your computer, without so much as a "by your leave." The evidence is clear in every feature update of Windows that breaks millions of computers worldwide. Your best defense is a regularly scheduled and faithfully executed imaging plan, so that if anything goes wrong (temporarily, we always hope), you can recover. Back up, back up, and back up.

allan said:

1) If you want to delete system folders, you'll have to do it after logging in to the other drive (log into W11, then delete the folders in the W10 installation). Frankly, I've never tried doing that, but I think it should work. If not, try taking ownership of those folders while still in W11 and see if that helps.

2) Even easier - if you don't need Windows on the old drive, copy the folders you want to keep to another drive, format the old drive, then copy the folders back. It will make a nice storage drive. You can even use it as the destination location for disk imaging (which I'm sure you are doing, right? )

Click to expand...

2) is an option I thought of. I'm very tempted by it as it should fix the permissions issue AND also get it to where I want it to be anyway!

hsehestedt said:

The OP acknowledged that they already know that this could be done in the original post but noted that this is not the point.

Just to expand on my previous post, because I realize I may not have made the point 100% clear...

Suppose that on the old installation of Windows you had a user named "Administrator". One the new Windows installation you also have a user named "Administrator". Bear in mind that these are two entirely different users. Further, the groups that they belong to (the Administrators group, for example), are two entirely different groups because they came from different systems.

Click to expand...

I see what you mean now! I thought 'Administrators' etc meant me, but it would have meant the users of that installation. The only issue is, I ran your first command (substituting G for D (I have no idea why Windows assigned G to my second SSD)). I got errors, (see attached)

If the Windows 10 drive was still connected when you installed Windows 11, make sure your computer isn't using the Windows 10 drive as the boot drive before doing anything with the drive. Try disabling it by removing the power from it and see if the computer still boots.

Winuser said:

If the Windows 10 drive was still connected when you installed Windows 11, make sure your computer isn't using the Windows 10 drive as the boot drive before doing anything with the drive. Try disabling it by removing the power from it and see if the computer still boots.

Click to expand...

It doesn't really matter. Windows has a great self-preservation model - it won't let you destroy the installation to which you are booted.

Winuser said:

If the Windows 10 drive was still connected when you installed Windows 11, make sure your computer isn't using the Windows 10 drive as the boot drive before doing anything with the drive. Try disabling it by removing the power from it and see if the computer still boots.

Click to expand...

@Winuser
Good advice. I always remove/disconnect any drives except the intended C:/Boot/System drive before installing the OS just to make sure I don't get undesired results.

Berton said:

I always remove/disconnect any drives except the intended C:/Boot/System drive before installing the OS

Click to expand...

Is there any reason why simply putting all drives except the intended target OFFLINE in Disk Management wouldn't work just as well as physically disconnecting or removing?

Wisewiz said:

Is there any reason why simply putting all drives except the intended target OFFLINE in Disk Management wouldn't work just as well as physically disconnecting or removing?

Click to expand...

Since I can conveniently reach the inside or back of my computers it's quicker and at the same time does a power reset of the drives plus opportunity to blow out any dust which should be done periodically anyway.

@Berton
I appreciate that. But when I'm running four internal disks in a SFF case, it takes a good while to open up the case and disconnect the drives that CAN be directly disconnected, and even longer to disconnect the NVMe that's connected to the mobo. It has to be physically pulled from the socket, and that of course involves undoing the holding screw. Time-consuming.

Using Disk Management to take the unneeded ones offline takes about five seconds, tops.

Life was simpler when we had only SATA disks to manage. But then, things moved much more slowly.

One significant adavantage to the SFF cases, though, is that there's VERY little accumulation of dust (since there are no case fans).