Deleting old Windows 7 Files

Question

This is my 3rd install of windows 7 now on various array of hard drives, I'm now onto a SSD.

However I need to clean up all the other files, I've managed to get rid of all the permission based files.

However I'm still left with various folders and files in my non-os hard drives.

My setup is.

C - OS-Windows7 - SSD
D - DataDisk - HDD - Where all programs are installed and user profiles
G - Games - HDD - Where all games are installed
M - Media - HDD - Where all pictures, videos and media are stored
T - Archive - HDD - Where downloads, backups and archivey type things are stored.

However inside my D, M, and T drives (previously had OS in them) i've got OS files that when I delete seem to cause weird errors.

The files in question are

$RECYCLE.BIN (assume its the bin? but i've got 1 of these folders in each HDD, with crap in it. Even though I've emptied my bin)

.Trash-999 (from ubuntu live disk that i used to delete the old /windows/ folders but i cant delete this now coz it contains...more windows files with higher permissions)

Config.Msi (no idea +  lock icon)
Documents and Settings (access denied)

found.000 (fragment folder but I want it gone, and its in all the HDDs also)

MSOCache (want is it? do i need it..and in each HDD?)

System Volume Infomration ( do i need this in every HDD?)

bootmgr, BOOTSECT.BAK, hiberfil.sys, win7.ld, HASJM, YBOJA, win7.ld ( i know these are boot files and page/hibernation files, but can I remove these as these are not the boot drive?)

some light shed on this will be lovely as my hdd's are riddled with duplicated files that are massive. for instance my pagefiles are 16GB each on all 5 HDDs.

Solution 1

$RECYCLE.BIN - Should be present on every drive. If you're feeling cowboy, you can right-click Recycle Bin on Desktop, go to Properties and set each drive to Don't move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted.

.Trash-999 - If you can't delete it because of permissions, right-click -> Properties -> Security tab -> Advanced -> Owner tab -> Edit... -> select yourself -> OK -> OK -> OK. This should give you full control over it.

Config.Msi - This is install cache from something. Don't touch it if it's not large.

Documents and Settings - If it's on system drive, in Windows 7 it's a NTFS folder link to Users for legacy applications. Don't touch it.

found.000 - Leftovers from bad sectors. They're potentially recoverable. You can delete them with regular Disk Cleanup (see option for chckdsk dump).

MSOCache - MS Office install cache. If you remove it, Office will ask for the CD during each update.

System Volume Information - this is where shadow copies & restore points are stored. It's not recommended to remove it. If you are feeling cowboy, go to Control Panel -> System -> System protection (in the side bar) and turn off protection for each drive.

bootmgr, BOOTSECT.BAK, hiberfil.sys, win7.ld, HASJM, YBOJA, win7.ld - DO NOT TOUCH ANY HIDDEN SYSTEM FILE WITH 'boot' IN ITS NAME!!! They are there because all OSes need them for NTFS drives. Besides, the system drive is close to the HDD's physical center, which reduces access time (i.e. your computer boots faster), but on SSD it doesn't matter. Hibernation can be deleted but will be restored every time you put your computer to sleep.

Also, if you decide to compress the content of the system drive using the NTFS compressed file & folder attribute, make sure it doesn't apply to any hidden system file in the disk's root. Otherwise, you'll find yourself rebuilding the system from scratch.

Per the discussion with the OP in the question, it appears to be that he has multiple physical HDDs with several volumes set as active resulting in extra system files. Here's the instruction how to de-activate the drives in Windows 7 or Vista:

WARNING!!! These steps will make each of those partitions incapable of hosting an operating system!

1. Press WIN and type diskpart into the search prompt. When the file shows up on top, press Enter. If it doesn't show up because of indexing problems go to Run... (or press WIN + R) and type diskpart then Enter.
2. Once disk management service loads (it may take a minute), type list disk and press Enter.
3. Note the number of the disk that contains the partition you want to set inactive.
4. Type select disk X and press Enter where X is the number of the disk.
5. Type list partition and press Enter.
6. Note the number of the partition you want to set inactive.
7. Type select partition X and press Enter where X is the number of the partition.
8. Type inactive and press Enter.
9. Repeat steps 2-4 for each disk that contains partitions to be set inactive then steps 5-8 for each partition on that disk.
10. Once you're done, type exit and press Enter
11. Reboot the system to make sure the new disk configuration is applied.

WARNING!!! Don't do this to your system disk!!!

Solution 2

1. Every drive (and user profile for that matter) has its own recycling bin, so yes that is what that is
2. Not sure what permissions error you are getting when trying to delete this file, but is should be possible to do under windows.
3. The config.MSI folder is used to temporerally hold files while they are being installed. If the installation fails, the files are not deleted in some cases. You can delete all of them (see here for more).
4. This folder contains a backup of office for maintence purposes. Up to you if you want to delete it.
5. Yes, as every volume should hold its own volume information.
6. Should not be a problem.

Comments

[dnbrv]

Do you have 5 physical drives or 2 drives (1 SSD + 1 HDD with 4 volumes)?

[owenmelbz]

4 Physicals - 3 HDD 1 SSD, x2 500GB x1 1TB (partitioned into 300GB & 700GB) x1 120GB SSD

[dnbrv]

In that case, you might have some tiny system files left in root directories because NTFS needs them.

[owenmelbz]

ive got a copy of bootmgr, bootsect.bak, pagefile.sys, win7.ld in EVERY HDD, even though only my SSD is the OS. are these ones also necessary, and can I delete the page files that are in the other drives?

[dnbrv]

That's because all of your logical drives are set active. You need to run diskpart. I'm adding instructions to my original answer (see below).

[owenmelbz]

oh okay, thanks alot will be good to read and sort it out!

[dnbrv]

It's not as much as it looks - I just tend to write very detailed instructions.

[dnbrv]

Have you tried it?

[owenmelbz]

hi sorry for slow reply, yeah I tried it but through easeus partition mngr as i recognised the options!