What's this folder?: c8c6ac6192a47b59df
I'm running Win XP SP3 on an IBM R50e laptop, and I just realized a folder named c8c6ac6192a47b59df in the root of my C:\ drive. I can see 2 folders in it named amd64 and i386. These two folders cannot be opened. XP says:
c8c6ac6192a47b59df cannot be accessed. Access Denied.
However, when I view the properties of the strangely-named folder, it shows 2 folders, 0 files, 0 bytes. I tried Unlocker to be able to unlock and delete the folder, but Unlocker says there are no handlers.
What's this folder and how can I delete it?
EDIT: Thanks to ChrisF, I managed to take ownership of the folders and now able to view the contents. Both folders include same files with different sizes. Should I just delete them?
Solution 1:
While I can't say for sure, it sounds like some application installer was using the root of the drive for a temporary location, instead of the more logical C:\tmp (or some similar name). This installer forgot to wipe its temporary files or was interrupted mid-install. Deleting the files should be fine (and under Linux it would be done automatically on reboot, I might add); I would try logging in as an administrator to get around the permissions problem.
Answer to edit: Try moving the folder to a different location (bonus points for moving to a removable drive and unplugging it), rebooting, and testing various things. If all goes well, deleting it can't harm anything. Otherwise, move the folder back to its original location.
Solution 2:
Based on the folder contents... I'd say it's from a Microsoft Update.
Many Microsoft updates are extracted to a temporary folder on the root of a drive (usually C, but if you have more than one drive it could be another one). These temp folders are usually removed after an update is successfully applied (after a subsequent reboot).
As suggested above, you could move or rename the folder to make sure there aren't any ill effects (there shouldn't be).
There is a post on the MS discussion board about a .Net update that left a temp folder such as the one you have.
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsupdate&tid=55f7835b-1e4e-4531-be2b-c6b75ae0a984
Taking ownership of files/folders on Vista/Win7 is a piece of cake with this registry script which adds "Take Ownership" to the right-click menu. See here: http://howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/
Microsoft has detailed instructions for taking ownership of files/folders in Windows XP here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421