Folder Deletion

[classicman]

This folder "appeared" one day in a place where nothing but images are stored. There is no reason to have a folder with this name or anything even remotely close to it. No one knows what this folder is or how it came to exist.
The name itself is bizarre also - "83814e935ee4291ba1c88f8e". Typical names in this place are simply compnany names Joe's Plumbing or Advanced woodworking. Nothing like this appears anywhere else.

[busterb]

Originally Posted by classicman

This folder "appeared" one day in a place where nothing but images are stored.

I also have 2 nutty folders in my image partition. Both with 2 folders named AMD64 and i386. I made a new folder, unk crap and moved them there to see if anything went nuts.
Forgot about them till this thread. Clueless me.

[tw]

Originally Posted by classicman

The name itself is bizarre also - "83814e935ee4291ba1c88f8e".

Folders used to download and execute things such as Microsoft updates create such names. A temporary work space to perform tasks. Malware can also work that way.

The Microsoft Malicious Software Removal tool creates a directory with a similar (randomly created) directory name. This tool is updated every second Tuesday of the month. Can be downloaded and executed from www.microsoft.com/downloads.

If the attribute suggestions do not work, then load Task Manager. Delete every process that lets you delete it - except explorer. Then try to delete that directory again. If the directory is ties to malware or a failed and locked process, then the deleted process means that directory can be removed.

On that machine is a directory named 9ebb0a808014bf37d6eb580ece3f63 that contains update files for IE7. Another entitled cb89db71fa772ad9123499d1 that contains update files for IE8.