Do you by chance have this drive pointed to as your TEMP, TMP folder(s) location, or perhaps the swap file?

I also found similar funny directories on my G: drive, which is a RAID 0 for my video files only; but - since it's the fastest drive on my system - I set the TMP/TEMP folder there, as well (this way I have a separate system drive C:, while the TMP is on another drive, and the swap file on yet another drive).

Interestingly, I can NOT delete those folders, as - even as the administrator - I have NO rights to them. I'm not even sure whether they were put there by Vista or XP updates (I'm dual-booting).

You're right - the only thing bad about them is cluttering the view in Explorer.

Well, I only have one OS, XP.

And from what I've read online about this situation it's an InstallShield operation and I also can't get rid of the -- can't even use my file-nuke freeware program (Kill Box) that can usually delete just about anything for it can suspend Explorer while doing its thing.

I even went through Task Manager and Services suspending any one that looked related .Net or SQL, whatever -- still no luck. It's not just one file type that refuses to go such as .dll, almost all of them. One folder was delete-able, but not the others. So I restored it, figuring better leave it all intact in case these files need to be accessed by some update modality down the road.

Someone on these boards suggested Safe Mode. May try that. If not, I'll go to Experts Exchange and see what solution I get with this Q.

Kind of obsessing with something harmless, but I tend to get a bit I-want-a-clean-system nerdy with this kind of thing at times.. What I should be doing is clean out folders and files around my hard drives that are so old they smell - lol

Right click on the folder - properties - click the box 'Hide' - Select only this folder - voila - they are gone from the folder view unless you have see hidden folders selected in your folder view options - which you can change also.

Don't know why or how but sometimes these files can be linked to part of the bootup in XP. You will see major activity on this drive during bootup. It's all a big secret.
JJK

As Kennymusician said, these are temporary folders left over by Windows Update. MS's suggested solution is to install the latest service pack for the OS, which in your case should be XP SP3. Do you already have that installed?

Thanks for additional replies.

"Hide" doesn't work on these puppies cuz... access denied, again. As far as XP updates, I've got auto-update, then I get yellow shield notification of them, then I install. So I should be current.

At one point, I thought that it was the Seagate propriety mounting software that may have caused this, but it ended up screwing up my Acronis True Image (because Seagate has stripped down version of it). Spent a few hours reversing the damage -- Sys Restore and other.

Finally the drive showed up, I full-formatted it, and then, a day or so later the "Whudahell are these files?" occurrence.

I'll probably find some solution at some point, but again, it's more an aesthetic issue--though I don't like .exe, .cab and .dll files hanging out in places other then their appropriate locations, i.e. C:\ Windows and Program Files and their temp install folders.

Windows can sometimes act be a bit odd when it sees such files in non-standard locations.

Oh, well, c'est la freakin' vie in the computer age.

A peanut problem compared to no-sleep night with geometrically worsening tooth abcess over the last week that I had to go to the ER this morning (dentist was out of town or unavailable). Will probably end in extraction next week.

T'was the kind of pain where thinking straight almost goes out the window.
Thank heaven for Vicodin...

Maybe Edward/JetDV can come up with a "JetVicodin for Vegas" script that will solve all of our Vegas conundrums ? :)

So do you have XP Service Pack 3 installed? Another thing I'd look at is upgrading to the latest MS Windows Installer (I think it's at v4.5 right now).

Soniclight - 'Hide' doesn't work on your computer? Are you on XP or Vista? It works on my XP computer, I have 3 of them hidden in the folder shown in the link below. You have to select only this folder not all folder inside the folder for it to work - but it does work. Click on the link to see a screen shot with one of those files hidden - you can see them in faint color means they are hidden - I just have folder options set to see hidden files - when I set to not seeing hidden files they disappear.
[Link=http://www.geocities.com/srode5/Hiddenfile2.jpg]

As stated above, I only have one OS - XP (Home version 2002 - not Pro), auto-updated since I've had it, hence I have SP3. Szo sez System Properties.

As far as the "Hide"/Hidden option, I get the same properties pop-up as in screenshot in post above, but once I chose Hide, I get an "an error occurred, etc. - access denied."

As I said, I'll just live with this for now.
No point my über--obsessing about it.

I'll just keep my eye open for odd .Net, InstallShield or OS behaviour, messages and/or Events in Admin.

Are you on an administrator screen?

The folders are probably owned by a system user.

You should be able to delete the folders by taking ownership of them.

Right click on the folder, click Properties and go to the Security tab.
Click on Advanced, go to the Owner tab and choose the new owner (e.g. Administrator)

OK all the property windows and then you should be able to delete the folders.

EDIT: I see you're on XP Home, I think you can only get to this dialog from safe mode in Home