Necessary Files? $WIN_NT$.~BT and $WIN_NT$.~LS

[Jeff Brimhall]

I just performed a parallel install of Windows XP with
the help of a Microsoft technician from Windows 98 Second
Edition. Once we installed XP, we deleted the
folder "Windows" to get rid of 98. After I got off the
phone with the technician, I noticed that I had two new
files on my C Drive. They were $WIN_NT$.~BT and
$WIN_NT$.~LS. Are these folders necessary?

The subfolders for $WIN_NT$.~BT are i386 and system32 and
the total size of the folder is just under 7 MB, while
the subfolder for $WIN_NT$.~LS is i386 and the size of
the folder is 175 MB.

If these files are not necessary, I would like to delete
them. Please let me know.

Regards,

Jeff

 

[John Coode]

I just performed a parallel install of Windows XP with
the help of a Microsoft technician from Windows 98 Second
Edition. Once we installed XP, we deleted the
folder "Windows" to get rid of 98. After I got off the
phone with the technician, I noticed that I had two new
files on my C Drive. They were $WIN_NT$.~BT and
$WIN_NT$.~LS. Are these folders necessary?

The subfolders for $WIN_NT$.~BT are i386 and system32 and
the total size of the folder is just under 7 MB, while
the subfolder for $WIN_NT$.~LS is i386 and the size of
the folder is 175 MB.

If these files are not necessary, I would like to delete
them. Please let me know.

Regards,

Jeff

Those 2 folders are created by the Windows installer program and
should have been deleted by that program before installation completed.
They contain configuration information and files that are used when
the computer reboots after the 'blue screen' phase of the installation.
The fact that they are still there may indicate that the installation of XP
did
not terminate normally but if everything is working, don't worry about it.
You can safely delete these 2 folders, but in general you should not delete
files with dollar signs as they are needed by the NTFS file system.