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Two Mysterious folders

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Carol Haynes:
I have two folders on one of my partitions which look as though they have been generated by Windows Update at some point.

I can't delete either of them (even using unlocker to delete them at boot time).

Anyone got any idea what they are and how to get rid of them?

The folders consist of a folder in the root directory which is totally numerical. Inside that there is a folder called 'update' which is inaccessible and says it has a size of 0 bytes.

The two top level folders are:

2ba8be635012972efbcd7831
56b279a56e198578bd546dca2c7ed3

If anyone has these anywhere on their system can you look in the update folder and see what the update was!!

This is typical of sloppy MS - they splatter updates on every drive and partition (whatever seems to randomly take their fancy at the time). In this case the folders can't actually be any use because they have placed them on a removable drive and nothing seems to cease functioning when the drive is switched off!

cmpm:
Try a system restore to a point before they appeared.
Last nights update killed my internet connection.
But I was able to get it back after rebooting my modem and router.

Found one numeric file in the root and was able to delete it.

This is USA eastern standard time btw.

zridling:
Either one of those would make great passwords. Just a guess, but if there are only two, then it may be a folder that is replaced with each update; that is, it's Microsoft's way of determining which was your last update.

However, that's just a wild guess.

Carol Haynes:
You are probably right Zaine, if it is MS's way of doing that though it is bloody stupid!!

How can anyone think it is good to have folders on your system that can't be accessed? How do I know what is actually in there? Properties tells me they are 0 buyes - but are they or is it just that Properties can't read the contents? Also what if files inside those folders are in alternate streams.

Presumably if they are not accessible AV software can't scan the contents either.

I can't restore to before their appearance for two reasons ...

1) I don't allow System Restore to run on external USB drives - it is meaningless anyway on those drives.
2) Even if I did run SR on the drive the newest folder dates back to the beginning of March - therefore both of them have been there since before I reinstalled Windows and are therefore not related to current Windows update activity.

Is there any way to take ownership of folders that are inaccessible?

mediaguycouk:
You are right that they are for Windows updates. They should be deleted but often they are not. They go on the drive that has the most free space at the start of the update.

You should be able to take ownership with right click, properties, security, advanced; but that does presume you are on xp pro.

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