W2K Pro - Can I Safely Remove "FOUNDxxx" Folders and "$NTUNINSTALLXXXX" Folders?

[Mike]

My HDD has many MBs of folders labeled FOUNDxxxx and $NTUNINSTALLxxx
can I safely remove them. I believe the $NT....... folders are temp folders
used by
security installs and sp installs.

Thanks

Mike

 

[Scott Harding - MS MVP]

FoundXXX folders are bad sectors on your hard drive. If you have a lot of
these I would replace the hard drive immediately as this is a sign that the
drive is going bad. As far as the uninstall folders if you delete them you
will not be able to uninstall those particular updates, but that may not be
a problem if the machine is working fine.

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

In

FoundXXX folders are bad sectors on your hard drive. If you have a
lot of these I would replace the hard drive immediately as this is a
sign that the drive is going bad. As far as the uninstall folders if
you delete them you will not be able to uninstall those particular
updates, but that may not be a problem if the machine is working fine.

Not always they can be just lost file parts from system crashes

 

[Mike]

I did a complete scan using Norton Disk Doctor which reported no bad sectors
in used or free space on the hdd.

I'll run another scan.

Mike

 

[Mike]

I noticed an increase in FOUND folders after system lock ups and shutdowns.
Most recent directory is dated 1/31/04 contains 21MB of 'filexxx.chk files.
Earliest folder is dated March 2003.

Mike

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

In

I noticed an increase in FOUND folders after system lock ups and
shutdowns. Most recent directory is dated 1/31/04 contains 21MB of
'filexxx.chk files. Earliest folder is dated March 2003.

Mike

I assume you have all updates/ recent anti virus / firewall on the
machine?

 

[Scott Harding - MS MVP]

Well since this is happening some what regularly I would still be a little
concerned.

 

[Mike]

Yes all updates, all security patches for W2K Pro and IE6, NAV,
Sygate personal firewall, spybot, google toolbar. No popups.

Mike

 

[Mike]

Yes, I'm going to check this daily for awhile.
Doing another full scan using Norton Disk Doctor as I type.

Mike

 

[Ricardo M. Urbano - W2K/NT4 MVP]

My HDD has many MBs of folders labeled FOUNDxxxx and $NTUNINSTALLxxx
can I safely remove them. I believe the $NT....... folders are temp folders
used by
security installs and sp installs.

Thanks

Mike

My real concern would be running such an unstable Windows installation
on FATxx. You've been lucky so far. One time, Windows won't be
bootable. At least NTFS is journaling and may well save your arse!

 

[Mike]

Oddly enough it's not unstable. The PC is 2 1/2 y/o
I can easily enough convert it to ntfs. I'll some reading on ntfs.

Mike

 

[Ricardo M. Urbano - W2K/NT4 MVP]

Oddly enough it's not unstable. The PC is 2 1/2 y/o
I can easily enough convert it to ntfs. I'll some reading on ntfs.

Mike

I only said it was unstable because of your comment:

"I noticed an increase in FOUND folders after system lock ups and
shutdowns."

Regardless, IMHO, NTFS is the way to go. Definitely look into it.