Bleeping Computer's

Over the course of time, my computer has gotten bogged down with various apps and such that conflict with each other etc.  Each app fighting for it's own prominence amongst the computer and creating a tangled web of complexity.  So I decided to fix that by returning my computer to it's former self.  The Gateway Laptop came with a partitioned hard drive that contained a backup, so that it could be restored to original condition.  So far it all sounds great and simple.  The plan to restore my computer and gain back some of my resources that have certainly been altered by the competing applications.  Restore went good.  Takes a lot of time to get back all the security patches from Microsoft.  Reinstalled the essential apps not supplied with the computer.  But here is the problem my hard drive has been cut in half in terms of remaining storage capacity.  The operating system can not possibly take up 50 GB. So upon further examination it looks like the backup is present with the new install and takes up half of the used space.  Should be simple to delete that folder called backup, but its not.  It will not let me delete it.  I have searched for solutions and found links to two similiar methods for removing this folder, but neither one is accomplishing the job.  Any suggestions?

http://support.gateway.com/s/software/MICROSOF/vista/7515425/7515425faq3.shtml

Problem fixed. http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic85514.html