"Metspitzer" wrote in message
...

I have a couple of drives that were used as the boot drive in other
machines, but now I just want to use them for data.
Each drive has a directory I want to keep, but I want to delete the
system files.
I am getting a "cannot delete" error.

Under Windows, this error message suggests you have booted
from this system partition.
1. Connect the drive otherwise, i.e. be sure you boot into Safe
Mode from another drive. You should then be able to delete
X:/windows OK -- if necessary via CMD by
RMDIR X:/windows
2. If not, the fastest solution is:
-- copy to another drive the data directories you want to keep
-- reformat the whole partition
-- copy data directories back wherever you want.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)