How do I delete this unneccessary, obscure folder in vista?

Question

I have a hard drive with a long obscure folder name (26b72166e9fa7bae09463d5c6f90e4) and subfolders i386 & amd64.

After googling, it seems that it may have been related to various updates/drivers. Right now I just want to get rid of it. This drive is just used for data storage. There is no OS on it.

When I try to delete, the error message says that I do not have permission. When I go to the security tab, I don't have permission to view or edit the objects permission settings.

Suggestions?

Edit: Add Spybot Secure Shredder to the growing list of non-working solutions.

Answer 1

Boot on a LiveCD that support NTFS. I guess most of the Linux live distros can do it (Ubuntu for instance).

From Linux, you should be able to browse your Windows disk and delete the rogue directory.

Answer 2

I would first try booting into safe mode as the Administrator. You might be able to delete it then.

Also, have you tried deleting it through the Windows command line? I find that sometimes works around finicky Windows issues like this.

Answer 3

Such files are typically left around by Windows Update.
If following Matthew's advice doesn't solve the problem, get Unlocker. But first verify which is the process that's hogging this directory, just in case.

Answer 4

If this update hasn't yet been fully applied the files may still be neccessary. If however the update has been applied then you can delete the files.

The Windows Update or BITS services might be locking these files but you can verify what, if anything has a reference to these files using SysInternals FileMon or ProcMon

Answer 5

This thread discusses the problem and a solution as below.

I am running Windows XP/SP2 and was able to delete the rogue folder this way:


1) Disable simple file sharing
 a. In the Control Panel, Select Folder Options, then select the View Tab
 b. Scroll down to the end and uncheck the box next to "Use simple file
sharing (Recommended)"
 c. Click Apply, OK, and exit Control Panel.
2) Change permissions of rogue folder
 a. Navigate to the ed798b66cbeb3a7b9bde9e55a9e2 folder left behind from
the .NET framework update
 b. Right click the folder, select Permissions, then select the Security tab
 c. Under the "Allow" column, click the first box for "Full Control". All
the boxes (or at least most of them) will automatically get checked.
 d. Click Apply then OK.
3) Drag rogue folder to the Recycle Bin. This should delete without a
problem. I told this solution to a friend and he had to go into the rogue
folder and perform step #2 for both the folders present for some reason, but
the end result was the same. The offending folder got deleted.