system question

I receantly created new folder within My Compter folder, currentlly the folders name is Other. My problem is when this folder was created it made what I believe is a copy of my entire C disk. Is there a way to to delete these files without curropting my C disk. I have already tried to delete or at least to the point that I am told that these files and programs may nolonger work properly. What should I do I believe these are just copies but if not I don't want to reformat or whatever due to the system files and programs being currupt. My OS is XP without the SP1 update

thx 2U all for your thoughts

 

what do you mean: "a copy of the hard drive"? Do you mean, the folder contains a copy of the of all files and folders from the root up, in the "other" folder??

I shouldn't think it would have made an actual copy. It'll probably have made entries in the FAT (the table that keeps records of the files you have on your hard drive), that point to the real data. In other words, the files you see in the folder "point" to the real data. It isn't actually using up anymore disk space (other than the extra, pointless, FAT entries).

Im intrigued as to how this came about, mind. You may have drag-dropped the root into the folder my mistake. When you say you have deleted it, what have you done? Clicked on the folder in "my computer" / "explorer" and pressed "del"? Try holding down "shift" when you press delete. This'll make a proper delete (not just adjusting the entries, so that the files now "reside" in the recycled directory). Hopefully this'll clean up the loose entries.

Other than that - try "scandisk". If the problem was caused by something else, that utility should pick up the erronous entries.