Windows 7 - Unknown Folders

I recently upgraded my computer from Windows XP to Windows 7. I did a clean install.

I have two hard drives in my machine. My primary hard drive is a 1TB drive that I had setup as two partitions c:\ for my OS and applications (200GB) and d:\ for data. I also had a second physical drive which was mapped as e:\. I use it for backup.

When I upgraded to Windows 7.

my data data partition that was on d:\ became e:\ and my physical drive that was e:\ became d:\. No big problem.

However, there are two folders in the root of e:\ that appear to be hexadecimal as they are a series of numbers and letters. I can't delete these two folders as it says I don't have access. In fact I don't even have access to open them. I am logged into windows with a user account with administrative priviledges.

Any ideas?

 

Were the old drives connected while the install for windows 7 was going on?

What version of XP were you using? Did you set any permissions on the other two folders?

You may have to set ownership to the new drive.

 

The old drives were both attached during install. Old OS was XP Home (SP3).

I got the folders open by setting permissions as you suggested.

contents are:

The first folder is:

E:\9f8b5163508edfe63685283e4c874126\i386
and contains only the file
update.exe​

Second folder is :

E:\a416a5c70b684ed1adf1d46f6d
With Sub Folders
\AMD64 and
\i386​

both sub folders contain the files shown in the attachment.


What are these folders and files and can I safely delete them?

 

I believe they may be related to OS patches from XP. Personally, I would leave them unless they are causing a problem or are taking up too much disk space.

 

Those folders/files are from two windows updates, one was for your AMD processor, and the other was probably just a software update.

These folders can be safely deleted, if you are having trouble deleting them try using Unlocker.

 

Well, from your OP, I'm guessing the re-install may have wiped the other partitions.

I'd try a recovery program like:

http://majorgeeks.com/Recuva_d5514.html

 

No it didn't wipe any partitions. All of my personal files were intact. It just changed the drive letter assignments and added these two folders which got me curious. It doesn't cause any problems I'm just not sure where they came from and why they would end up on a data partition separate from the OS partition.

I have never had an AMD processor in this machine it's an Intel Q6600.

 

Ah, misread then. Sorry about that.

Well, if they are just updates to software/drivers/os, you can delete them, up to you. Just realize you can't roll back via add/remove programs.

I typically delete any updates after a week or so, making sure my computer is stable before I do.

 

Are C: and E: (the E: with the two files) on the same HD? I'm just slightly confused. If they are then I agree the files aren't important. You can always test before deleting by putting a "JUNK" in front of their name E:\JUNK9f8b5163508edfe63685283e4c874126\i386 and see if everything boots up OK.

If they are separate HDs then I would unplug the E: drive and see if things boot OK.

 

C:\ and E:\ are two partitions on the same physical hard drive. I'll try renaming them to junk to see what happens.