Strange folder names

[Mark W]

Hello:

I am wondering if someone knows about the following. I have an XP Pro
system with SP2. The system has a local C: drive, D: is the DVD drive, E:
is the CD/RW drive, and F: is an external USB hard drive.

I noticed that after I installed SP2, there are a bunch of strange folder
names on my F: (external) drive, such as:

01f1d502f0ce4652f5d3
2b8f9f5489cb4b52a
2de05ae9ab5bfeff9f8737a7e71d
9fa1e116beb9e5c66fdbf922b8c23ed9

All of the folder have a Update subfolder with Update.exe, or they have an
SP2\Update\Update.exe path. If I try to delete the folders as an
Administrator account, I get "Can not delete update.exe. Access is denied.
Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and that the file is
currently not in use".

I planned to use my F: external drive for my local C: backups. But, if
Windows is going to add, and add and add strange folders to F: from patches,
I may have to consider some thing else.

Any suggestions for this will be appreciated. Thank you.

Mark

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Mark;
Reboot to Safe Mode and delete them:
Reboot tapping F8 each second.
Select Safe Mode at the menu.