After upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 I only have available ½ of my 1TB Passport Ultra. I believe that the other half is taken up by backups from the old Windows 7 operating system that are no longer accessible. I would like to clear those old files out but cannot find a way to do it. From Control Panel I can only view the backups created since upgrading to Windows 10. I can see that 400gb of the drive is taken up by “Other” which I believe are the Windows 7 backups. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to delete the old Windows 7 backup files other than wiping the drive clean and starting from scratch?
Hello,
You can either go directly into the backup folder and deleting the old backup or you can just format the drive (this will delete everything on it) and just start over again.
@Mark_Kramer is the whole 1TB available on that drive, or is it split somehow? If everything is available, you should be able to access the files from Windows Explorer. If they are hidden, you might need to unhide them: go to View > Options, which opens a popup windows, then to the View tab where you can choose “Hidden files and folders, Show hidden files, folders, and drives” and possibly uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”
Keep in mind that you might want to rehide things after you are done.
Thank you, Hamlet & Klamation. I tried unhiding all options in Windows Explorer and it did not reveal any hidden folders; just a couple of tiny files. The only folders of consequence, size-wise, are the folders with my current backups from Windows 10. There are three and each is dated beginning since I upgraded to Windows 10. None of the three are over 125GB. It’s looking like my best option is to start over again.
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