Windows.old

[Dave]

You are, of course, correct RC. I must have had a little brain-freeze there
so thanks for your input my friend )

Dave

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Dave.

You're welcome, of course. Now, stand by; you may need to do the same for
me now and then. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

 

[TOM]

What do you (and Trev) think a "Clean" install is?

Had you, there's no way you'd have the Windows.Old folder.

I formatted my hard drive after copying files to another HD. I then
installed Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit OEM. I have Windows.old as well as a
Windows.old.000 on C: drive.

Windows.old and Windows.old.000 have the following folders:

Perflogs
Program Files
Program Files (x86)
ProgramData
Users
Windows

The date and time modified is identical for both folders

Identical folders also reside om the Win7 folder but dates differ from
the dates of the above files. The dates of the .old folders reflect the
date I installed Windows 7.

I assume I can now officially be confused... :>))

 

[Jack]

I formatted my hard drive after copying files to another HD. I then
installed Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit OEM. I have Windows.old as well as a
Windows.old.000 on C: drive.

Windows.old and Windows.old.000 have the following folders:

Perflogs
Program Files
Program Files (x86)
ProgramData
Users
Windows

The date and time modified is identical for both folders

Identical folders also reside om the Win7 folder but dates differ from the
dates of the above files. The dates of the .old folders reflect the date I
installed Windows 7.

I assume I can now officially be confused... :>))

The <tongue-in-cheek> 'Format' in Windows 7, isn't.

 

[nooneyouknow]

The <tongue-in-cheek> 'Format' in Windows 7, isn't.

Delete the Partition and make a new one.

 

[Spanky de Monkey, ESQ]

But that's the point - if it was a clean install it would not find a
previous OS and so would not create a windows.old folder.

When you go to the shop to buy a brand-new hard drive, you can't put it in
the computer and expect to start using it straight away because it won't
work. It has to be prepared first and that is done by formatting (and if
you so wish, partitioning) it. In effect what you're doing is laying out a
structure to it, telling it that this area here can be used for this, that
area over there can be used for that, etc., etc.

In order to keep track of what's going where, a table is created. Think of
it like the table of contents of a book - the list tells you something
like: Chapter 6, The songs of Led Zeppelin, Page 58, so you know that if
you turn to page 58 you'll find the songs of Led Zeppelin. If a previously
used hard drive (or partition) is formatted, what you're effectively doing
is removing the table of contents - the data (the songs of Led Zeppelin)
is still there but you don't know where it is and you don't know where to
look for it so you can't find it. Or to put it in the context of this
topic, your new OS would not see the old OS and therefore would not create
a windows.old folder.

Personally, I would delete the partition, create a new partition in the
now unpartitioned space, and format that - that is a clean install.

There must be something wrong with your format program. I have Led Zeppelin
in Chapter 4.

 

[Walter Goldschmidt]

I installed a new hard drive and I don't remember having to partitioning it
and I always thought formatting it was a clean install. I know when I
occasionally pick up a virus when I format and re-install OS it gets rid of
the virus.

Walt

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Walt.

I installed a new hard drive and I don't remember having to partitioning
it

Then someone must have pre-partitioned it - or your memory is about as bad
as mine. As I said, we never format "a drive", if we are defining a drive
as the physical disk. We create and format a partition on the physical
drive, even if there is only a single partition covering the entire disk.
And Windows can't really use the hard drive at all until it has been
partitioned and formatted - either by us or by someone else before we got
the disk.

and I always thought formatting it was a clean install.

No. A "clean install" typically follows a format or reformat of the
partition, but not necessarily. Formatting is not always followed by
installation of an operating system on that partition. Many of us use one
or more partitions as "data drives", with no OS installed there. But, even
if there is no OS on them, these partitions must be formatted before we can
store data there.

I know when I occasionally pick up a virus when I format and re-install OS
it gets rid of the virus.

How do you "occasionally pick up a virus"?! I've been computing over 30
years and never have "picked up a virus". You must not be "practicing safe
hex". :^{ But, yes, a reformat will wipe out most viruses; even without a
re-format, a re-installation of Windows will eliminate some of them. Since
I've never had experience with a virus, I'll let others handle any details
you might need on this subject.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

 

[Seth]

Hi, Walt.


Then someone must have pre-partitioned it - or your memory is about as bad
as mine. As I said, we never format "a drive", if we are defining a drive
as the physical disk. We create and format a partition on the physical
drive, even if there is only a single partition covering the entire disk.
And Windows can't really use the hard drive at all until it has been
partitioned and formatted - either by us or by someone else before we got
the disk.

Well, Panther (the Windows installer for Vista, Win7, 2008 and 2008R2) will
allow you to select an unpartitioned hard drive as the destination and it
will automagically do the partitioning and formatting without the user
knowing.

 

[chrisv]

Well, Panther (the Windows installer for Vista, Win7, 2008 and 2008R2)
will allow you to select an unpartitioned hard drive as the destination
and it will automagically do the partitioning and formatting without the
user knowing.

But if it has been formatted previously, it doesn't really do it even if you
select to format the drive during installation.

 

[Seth]

But if it has been formatted previously, it doesn't really do it even if
you select to format the drive during installation.

It won't do it automatically, but it will still do it if you explicitly tell
it to (by hitting advanced options, click on the partition and hit format).

 

[Jack]

It won't do it automatically, but it will still do it if you explicitly
tell it to (by hitting advanced options, click on the partition and hit
format).

That appears to only do the "Quick Format"... the old data isn't
overwritten. You need to delete the partition and create a new one to get a
real Format.

 

[Seth]

That appears to only do the "Quick Format"... the old data isn't
overwritten. You need to delete the partition and create a new one to get
a real Format.

Even then, if using the utilities built into the Panther GUI, even on a
delete partition and recreate it will be a "quick format". You have to drop
out to a prompt (or use a 3rd party disk) to get a "real format".

 

[johnbee]

How do you "occasionally pick up a virus"?! I've been computing over 30
years >

If you have been involved in computing for 30 years and you do not know how
viruses
get onto a PC, then you have not tried very hard. In the old days I think
the most common
viruses relied on people booting their PC with a non-system diskette in the
drive left over
from a previous session. MS-DOS ran whatever program was in the boot
sector of a diskette
in the A drive. Usually of course that program printed 'Non-System Disk' or
some such
thing, I can't remember the details - and my PC now has no floppy drive due
to a mistake I made
when ordering it. I am fairly sure that PCs with floppy drives will still
fail to go if a floppy disk
is in the drive when they switch on. My guess is that many people would be
mystified if it
happened and people would tell them they have a virus.

Since then of course programmers have invented all sorts of methods of
getting their
programs to spread for fun. I have had two, one at work called Form which
was in most
PCs in our part of the organisation - it was discovered by me when I looked
at a new virus
protection program prior to installing it on all PCs. For a reason I do
not fully understand
it would not 'infect' one of my PCs but did the other when I tried it. I
took it home and
it worked on my home PC. The other one was named Vundo and was received
much more
recently and which caused a lot of popup ads when browsing. Windows and my
cheapo
virus protection failed to detect it and to remove it when I found out what
it was and I had a
good go at removing it according to instructions on web sites. It was a
little monkey
though and I had to download a program from Symantec to get rid of it. That
one was
a trojan in an 'alternative' web site for downloading free software demos.
Obviously my anti-virus thing bought since then reports 'viruses' weekly in
order
to show what a good job it is doing.
It is not necessary ever to reformat and reinstall an operating system to
get rid of a virus,
although of course it is the first thing suggested by people who are not
very expert. Get decent
virus software which you pay for, register it and join the web site, and if
you get a nasty virus
(which you won't if you follow the software's advice) search the web site
for a solution.
The last resort is not to start from scratch. If you are a home user the
last resort is to get a virus
expert from the web site to remove the thing by remotely controlling your
PC - but that will
never be necessary if you have decent registered software and are a web site
member.

Obviously, do not be too nervous about getting a virus - getting rid of it
sensibly is
part of the learning process and is pretty simple. There is more mystical
rubbish and nonsensical
ignorant advice about the subject than anything except miracles.

Finally I realise of course that your question was a rhetorical device - I
just noticed it while
having my dinner cooked and filled in the wait with this.

 

[LD55ZRA]

thing, I can't remember the details - and my PC now has no floppy drive
due to a mistake I made
when ordering it. I am fairly sure that PCs with floppy drives will still
fail to go if a floppy disk

With Windows system a user can set in the bios how windows boots up and the
order of booting. Normally it is HD, CD, Floppy, Other devices etc. but
this can be changed as sometimes you want your system to boot up from a CD
so that you can perform a clean install or boot up from a network so that
you can download the image of the system to avoid viruses planted on the
system by students and other malicious users.

 

[Star]

There must be something wrong with your format program. I have Led Zeppelin
in Chapter 4.

I think the Windows default is Chapter 4 but if you use a 3rd party
program for the format it may well appear in a different Chapter.

Art

 

[Marty Felker]

How long do I need to keep this directory which was made after upgrading
Vista to Windows 7.

You can (and probably should) remove it when you are ssure you've gotten
all your data files lmoved to Windows. It can take up a lot of useless
- any programs would run. I don't believe you can revert to Vista but
even if you why on earth would you??

mf