Strange folders

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daniel Royer
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Daniel Royer

HI,

I have folders under c: with strange names combining letters and
numbers that don't make any sense. They seem to be related to updates.
What are they and can I delete them?

Daniel

PS Not to be confused with the ones under c:\windows.
 
Daniel Royer said:
HI,

I have folders under c: with strange names combining letters and
numbers that don't make any sense. They seem to be related to updates.
What are they and can I delete them?

Daniel

PS Not to be confused with the ones under c:\windows.
--
_________________________________
Daniel Royer
University of Geneva
daniel at royer dot ch
Click to expand...


Click on one. Are they VDM files? Got MSE on your machine? That's where
they are from.
 
Daniel said:
I have folders under c: with strange names combining letters and
numbers that don't make any sense. They seem to be related to
updates. What are they and can I delete them?

Daniel

PS Not to be confused with the ones under c:\windows.
Click to expand...

Temporary working folders for updates.
If you are able to delete them - you can deleted them.
Might have to take ownership/use Unlocker/etc.
 
Daniel Royer said:
* Bruce Hagen wrote, On 10/01/2010 22:16:
What is MSE?

--
_________________________________
Daniel Royer
University of Geneva
daniel at royer dot ch
Click to expand...


Microsoft Security Essentials.
 
HI,

I have folders under c: with strange names  combining letters and
numbers that don't make any sense. They seem to be related to updates.
What are they and can I delete them?

Daniel

PS Not to be confused with the ones under c:\windows.
--
_________________________________
Daniel Royer
University of Geneva
daniel at royer dot ch
Click to expand...

When Windows installs things, it may create a temporary folder
consisting of 20-30 random letters and numbers in the root drive of
the volume with the most free space. This explains why sometimes the
folders are on your C drive or on some other drive - which one has the
most free space?

For example you may see a folder called: D:
\9470bb12e8a4f3447657236478e41c5

There may be other folders and files under the main temporary
folder.

These should normally be removed when the installation is complete,
but sometimes they are not. They are harmless
but annoying. You may think something is wrong when there is not or
be afraid the files are really needed. To avoid confusion you can
delete the temporary folders.

You may be able to identify the installation (for curiosity) by
looking at some of the folder contents and decide if that installation
was okay, just delete the files/folders. If the installation did not
work properly for some reason, running the installation again will
just create a new randomly named temporary folder so the old temporary
folder is really of no use.

Sometimes the folders are stubborn to delete. Even if you are an
Administrator on the system you may get a "sharing violation", "access
denied", "being used" or similar type message when trying to remove
the temporary folders. Installations sometimes use different
permissions than a regular user with Administrator group might have.

There are many methods to try to remove the folders and some involve
third party programs to install or changing
certain Windows settings that may compromise your system security if
you don't change them back when you are done.

Booting your system in Safe Mode (pressing the F8 key repeatedly right
before XP tries to load) is a good method
to try and remove the folders since it doesn't involve making any
changes to your system configuration or
downloading any third party programs.

If Safe Mode does not work you can change the security of the folder
to give your user Full Control over the folder
by browsing to it in Explorer, click Tools, Folder Options, View and
in the Advanced settings window, uncheck (at
the bottom) Use simple file sharing (recommended), and click OK. This
turns off the recommended simple file sharing
on your computer so you will want to turn it back on when you are
done.

Right click the stubborn folder, Properties and click the now visible
Security tab. Select your user name and
check the box to allow Full Control, click OK to apply the changes.

Now try to delete the folder.

It is a good idea to go back into Explorer and turn back on (Enable)
Simple file sharing (recommended) when you
have finished.

If none of the above work, try a popular third party tool called
Unlocker.

Unlocker can be download from here:

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Unlocker can be uninstalled when you are finished using it.

Reboot when you are finished to be sure the annoying folders are
really gone.
 
I got a new directory called "$WIN_NT$.~BT" on my C: drive after
I installed XP on E. Looking at the contents, it looks like
stuff many programs dump into win\temp during an install and
then delete - or not, copies of a LOT - but NOT all - setup
files (like intelide.sy_ etc.). For some reason, XP put this in
the /root/ of C and left it there.

Can I delete that one?

Also, the "System Volume Information" dirs on each partition are
only for restoring/etc, right? If I ONLY have that feature
enabled for the XP partition (which has about half a gig of
stuff in that directory), I would assume I can delete the ones
on the other partitions, all of which contain /nothing/, not
even the omnipresent desktop.ini...

Right?
 
HI,

I have folders under c: with strange names combining letters and numbers
that don't make any sense. They seem to be related to updates. What are
they and can I delete them?

Daniel

PS Not to be confused with the ones under c:\windows.
Click to expand...
Thanks to everyone who helped.

Daniel
 
I got a new directory called "$WIN_NT$.~BT" on my C: drive after
I installed XP on E. Looking at the contents, it looks like
stuff many programs dump into win\temp during an install and
then delete - or not, copies of a LOT - but NOT all - setup
files (like intelide.sy_ etc.). For some reason, XP put this in
the /root/ of C and left it there.

Can I delete that one?

Also, the "System Volume Information" dirs on each partition are
only for restoring/etc, right? If I ONLY have that feature
enabled for the XP partition (which has about half a gig of
stuff in that directory), I would assume I can delete the ones
on the other partitions, all of which contain /nothing/, not
even the omnipresent desktop.ini...

Right?
Click to expand...

I do not know what the $WIN_NT$ folder is about.

The SVI folder is required by XP. It is where XP stores information
for the built in System Restore functions.

You do not have to let SR monitor all your drives, but every volume
must have an SVI folder.

You can turn of SR completely and empty all your SVI folders and then
delete the folders, but new SVI folders will be recreated on every
volume when you reboot. That's the way it is.

It doesn't mean you have to ever use the SVI folders - they can be
totally empty, but must be there. It is easier to just accept the
presence of the empty folder(s) than to try to figure out how to make
it go away. It is a little annoying at first not being able to get
rid of them, but after trying to make them go away using unnatural
methods I just quit trying and no longer care.

I only have SR monitoring my C (boot) drive and my C:\SVI folder
accumulates my Restore Points as it should.

I also have an SVI folder on D and E, but they are empty since I
choose not to monitor those drives.

I have never used SR to fix anything and some people tinker with or
just turn off SR completely to recover some amount of HDD storage. I
have tested my SR to be sure my mechanism is sound. SR is a frequent
target for malicious software and I want to know it really does work
in case I ever do need it someday.
 
ups.com:
I do not know what the $WIN_NT$ folder is about.
Click to expand...

OK. I'll rename it and see what happens for a few days. Probably
nothing. The name "$WIN_NT$.~BT" almost screams "temp, delete".
The SVI folder is required by XP. It is where XP stores
information for the built in System Restore functions.

You do not have to let SR monitor all your drives, but
every volume must have an SVI folder.

You can turn of SR completely and empty all your SVI
folders and then delete the folders, but new SVI folders
will be recreated on every volume when you reboot. That's
the way it is.
Click to expand...

I have XP on the E drive and all the other drives have sys
restore disabled. I left it on for E even though I don't really
have much confidence - but I'm "trying the OS", so...

I have deleted the SVI directories on a couple of other (SR
disabled) drives and they have NOT returned.
It doesn't mean you have to ever use the SVI folders - they
can be totally empty, but must be there. It is easier to
just accept the presence of the empty folder(s) than to try
to figure out how to make it go away. It is a little
annoying at first not being able to get rid of them, but
after trying to make them go away using unnatural methods I
just quit trying and no longer care.
Click to expand...

Hmm. How come mine DID go away?
I only have SR monitoring my C (boot) drive and my C:\SVI
folder accumulates my Restore Points as it should.

I also have an SVI folder on D and E, but they are empty
since I choose not to monitor those drives.

I have never used SR to fix anything and some people tinker
with or just turn off SR completely to recover some amount
of HDD storage. I have tested my SR to be sure my
mechanism is sound. SR is a frequent target for malicious
software and I want to know it really does work in case I
ever do need it someday.
Click to expand...

I trust my 2002 version of Acronis much more than I would ever
try any MS security/safety/backup "solution". But fir now, what
the hell.

Thanks very much for your comments.



--
There are only two classifications of disk drives: Broken drives
and those that will break later.
- Chuck Armstrong (This one I think, http://www.cleanreg.com/,
not the ball player. But who knows. I can't remember where I got
the quote. But it's true.)
 
Shenan said:
Temporary working folders for updates.
If you are able to delete them - you can deleted them.
Might have to take ownership/use Unlocker/etc.
Click to expand...

Speaking of "strange folders" - what is this:
C:\WINDOWS\$xpsp1hfm$

servicepack1 - can we delete this?
 
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