windows 8 has deleted my windows.old/programfiles ?!!!

Anonymous

I was rather annoyed that windows 8, instead of integrating my existing programs and settings, shoved everything including settings in windows.old/ProgramFiles (what was the point of having a tick box that said "keep existing settings" if it didnt and even made my email inaccessible till I downloaded windows live mail again?)

However after hours of fiddling I managed to do a combination of re-install and running programs with tricky settings from the windows.old/program files directory via desktop shortcuts

Over the last few days the short cuts stopped working and I see windows 8 has deleted my windows.old/programfiles directory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its not in my Recycle bin, its not in my AVG virus vault

Any one know where this is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldnt understand why windows 8 had to stuff all my programs out of the way so it would take me hours to make shortcuts...but deleting the whole directory and my settings? Come on, this is rediculous

HELLLLP!!!

Andy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

As I understand the process, the Windows 8 upgrade will copy your existing files and settings into \Windows.old, including:

PerfLogs
Program Files
Program Files (x86)
Users
Windows

It will then create new folders for all of the above, and migrate the files into the new folders. The \Windows.oldfolder is really just there as a part of the upgrade process, but it does act as a temporary backup folder. If you don't need anything from there in the first month, then you're not likely to need anything from there ever (as most / all of it is already in the new folders, and the old folder is likely taking up gigabytes of space).

Now, if you've upgraded from Windows 7, then congrats, everything has been moved to the new folders, including installed programs and drivers.

If you've upgraded from Vista or earlier, then your documents and settings have been migrated, but you're expected to reinstall the programs yourself, and the upgrade makes this clear. If you're foolish enough to create shortcuts into*\Windows.old\Program Files* and hack the registry to point into that folder, then you've dug your own grave.

(I came here through a Reddit link, thought I'd copy my explanation over there to the original thread here.)

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi ,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community Forum.

From your issue description , I understand that the Windows .old folder is deleted from your Windows 8 computer.

In order to help you better,pease provide us with the following information.

1.When did you install Windows 8 in your computer?

I understand the inconvenience caused you, unfortunately the Widows .old folder will delete automatically after 28 days since Windows was installed.

It will also delete automatically when the Windows drive has less than 10% free space.

I am sorry to let you inform that its not possible to retrieve if the Windows.old folder is deleted from your computer .

Reply with the required information. If you have any further issues, please get back to us and we would be happy to help you.

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61 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-07-02T19:13:02+00:00

We expect an answer to this MS. I can't believe this wasn't fixed in the first second you heard about it. This isn't a bug report - YOU KNOW THE SOFTWARE DOES THIS and it's a ticking time bomb.

You must make this change and release it in the next windows update before Windows deletes something very important to someone very powerful and you end up in a lot of trouble. The kind of monetary trouble you're not that afraid of, but nonetheless.

If I were someone, if I even knew someone in a position to help make some legal headway I'd already be gunning for you. YOU DELETED FILES OFF MY COMPUTER WHICH WERE NOT WINDOWS FILES. Don't you understand that? You move all the users things (MY THINGS... MY FILES) into windows.old. That doesn't make them system files. They are still my intellectual property.

Then you DELETE THEM. THAT IS THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE SCRIPT EVER. Isn't the safer option to keep them? WHY.... I've been using MS products FOREVER. Why would you delete them. Without warning?!?

Level 1 tech reading this - please just escalate it unless you have already heard of it before and you have the official response. This is a very serious issue.

I know some of the other posters are experienced techs as well as evidenced by their description of the issue. This isn't our mistake, it is a serious flaw.
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Anonymous

2013-07-03T03:42:18+00:00

I have to agree that this is rather unbelievable...but not. Microsoft has been steadily moving away from accepting there is a technically savvy population. In fact I am so disgusted with the direction they are heading (not just this issue) that I just emailed them to decline to renew my MVP status. I can no longer be supportive.
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Anonymous

2013-07-22T21:25:02+00:00

Same thing happened here. I had 50 GB of files from my work computer that were backed up when the IP stack corrupted and I lost networking access. Nothing else was fixing it, so I did a refresh. I was busy spending my day reinstalling and copying over settings when poof... gone. I have 6 GB left of the original 50 GB. It's only been four hours. Why the **** is it erasing my data after four hours? For that matter, I haven't even had this computer for 28 days, so it can't even be the time since it was originally installed (since I formatted and installed clean when I got the PC). And my drive was only at 180 / 237 GB used, so it was a far cry from 90% full, too. What magic criteria is Windows using to determine when it wants to just nuke everything? I managed to recover most of my data, but not all of it... not some of the data that I need. The vital stuff was backed up on a network share, thankfully, but settings, logs, etc just gone. How can I trust Windows with my business needs when it will randomly, arbitrarily delete (irrecoverably) all my data whenever and without warning?
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