Sucessful W7 - W10, But...

caveman38

My plan was to UG to W10 over W7 and if all went well and activated, I'd clean install W10 and assume it would activate automatically.


Well, it has gone so smoothly (don't wanna speak too soon) but I am totally confused with disk space, I'll explain.
I have an SSD for OS etc. which had 35 GB of available space. I performed the Upgrade and it shows I have 29GB still available. But it shows that the new windows folder uses 18GB and the Windows.old folder contains 40GB.
I've checked 3 times and the figures are correct. So, if the info I glean from recovering disk space after an upgrade is to use the Disc Cleanup utility and assuming it locates the windows.old folder and I deleted it would land up with more disc space than before the upgrade.
What am I missing - I hasten to add I don't intend doing it for a while.

Neil_Jones

If you remove windows.old you will not be able to downgrade back to Windows 7. After I think about 10 days or so the space will be reclaimed automatically.

Windows.old is not just the old Windows 7 installation it is also the program files for your programs, configurations, data etc - it is a snapshot of your system before you upgraded, that's why its so big.

caveman38

OK that makes sense. But the old OS doesn't appear in Discleanup for manual removal. Do I just wait for automatic removal where I would then see a reduced windows.old folder?

grumpycrab

Did you click "clean up system files"?

Frozen_up_north

What you should have done, was to make a full backup of the disk before upgrading. That way if anything failed you could revert back. Too late now, but worth remembering.

Back in the early days of Win 10, I upgraded from Win 7 and had issues with drivers. Swapping back to Win 7 was easy, as was resuming with Win 10 a couple of weeks later (from a backup) when drivers were released.

I use Acronis True Image, there are free backup tools too.

Bottom line, run regular backups to an external drive... it gives an easy way back if anything goes wrong.

Neil_Jones

If you want rid of it you need to click on "Clean System Files" in Disk Cleanup. On the next box it should then appear as an option. It doesn't appear on the default Disk Cleanup screen.

Now all of that being said, Disk Cleanup is actually depreciated as of v1809. Storage Sense is the preferred way of doing things.

caveman38

OK thanks all. I have all data backed up and do it regularly to USB sticks.
Will a restore point automatically be created today as everything seems OK. Or should I create on _ How? I'm most surprised as I have a 20yo Sound Card (M Audio) that works still on old drivers and even my Office 2000 works.
As a side note the new OS activated automatically even though my W7 was OEM. Although Product ID and Key are completely new.

caveman38

Neil_Jones wrote: »

If you want rid of it you need to click on "Clean System Files" in Disk Cleanup. On the next box it should then appear as an option. It doesn't appear on the default Disk Cleanup screen.

Now all of that being said, Disk Cleanup is actually depreciated as of v1809. Storage Sense is the preferred way of doing things.

Will I need to use that although Discleanup is still available. BTW Windows has updated to V1903

grumpycrab

Create a restore point. https://youtu.be/vKH0QeV0coM

EveryWhere

Why would you bother with all of that, if you intend to clean install anyway? A complete waste of time.

caveman38

EveryWhere wrote: »

Why would you bother with all of that, if you intend to clean install anyway? A complete waste of time.

Good point. I suppose if I find that if it continues to work without any issues I may well continue with just the upgrade. I know that I can clean install and have no activation issues if I wish.
The extra disk space may be useful under those circumstances.