I Got a new machine with a fancy SSD drive and installed windows on it. I stuck in my drives from my old machine that had win 7 installed on one of them. I want to remove the old OS files as that drive has a lot of other data on it I need to go through so I do not want to just format it. Now I can't delete that windows directory. If I try to change the security setting after I hit Edit all the boxes are grayed out as if I do not have rights to change the permissions.

Take ownership with full permissions on the drive by clicking the Windows Orb (Start) > All Programs > Accessories and right-click Command Prompt, then ‘Run as Administrator’. Type these two commands, each followed by the Enter key, then close the Command Prompt. In the example, I have used drive d: as the drive and JohnSmith as the user name, change both of them accordingly. Good luck. takeown /f d: icacls d: /grant JohnSmith:F

Take ownership with full permissions on the drive by clicking the Windows Orb (Start) > All Programs > Accessories and right-click Command Prompt, then ‘Run as Administrator’. Type these two commands, each followed by the Enter key, then close the Command Prompt. In the example, I have used drive d: as the drive and JohnSmith as the user name, change both of them accordingly. Good luck. takeown /f d: icacls d: /grant JohnSmith:F I just tried this right now and it didn't allow me to delete the folder. The command prompt responded to the commands as if it had given me permission, but when I went to delete the folders, I got the same message as I got before following the instructions above.

Any files that are owned by the ‘Trusted Installer’ cannot be changed using take ownership. Have you tried deleting at a lower folder level, i.e. navigating down the hierarchy?

I tried at the lower level also, got the same errors.

That’s strange, do you have an administrator’s account? Anyway, as a test, try taking ownership of a single folder. Right-click the folder, select Properties > Security Tab > Advanced at the bottom > Owner Tab > Edit > Highlight your user name and put a tick in ‘Replace owner on subcontainers…’ and Apply > OK. Click Yes when you receive the Security pop-up window then click OK to the Close/Reopen message. Now go back to the Properties > Security Tab and click Edit > Add. Type in your User Account Name in the box. Click on Check Names > OK. Click on your User Account Name to highlight it. Check the box for Full Control > Apply and OK etc.