Bill,
As the suggestions you have received go, the best was from "R.
McCarty" concerning the use of ACLs (Access Control Lists) of files and
folders.

This is not as frightening as at first appears.

Just open a 'Command Prompt' windows (or DOS-box, as it is sometimes
called) by going to your 'Start Menu' and select 'Programs' >
'Accessories' > 'Command Prompt' .

At the prompt, type (or 'copy and paste') the following command into the
window :


CACLS D:\1f51b16e8f7767f039c58f34385d83f3 /E /G Users:F


The above command should be all on one line but may not appear so due to
line-wrap.

(*Please Note: There is a colon between the word 'Users' and the letter
'F')

The above command assumes the directory in question is in the root of
your [D:] drive - If not, then append it's path accordingly.

This command will edit the ACL of your folder to give all users 'Full'
access rights - so you should then be able to delete it with no
problems...

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




"BillVa" <BillVa@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BED7CD86-CBF3-4F10-A5E9-C16140213DE2@microsoft.com...
>I have Windows XP Media Center Edition on my computer and I'm the only
>user.
> Over the yrs I have done 4 complete system restores on the computer.
> Each
> time I've done one a strange folder appears on a secondary drive. It's
> always
> just a jumble of letters and numbers, like this:
>
> 1f51b16e8f7767f039c58f34385d83f3
>
> I can't either access the folders or delete them. I've tried to change
> the
> attributes from read only but that doesn't work and when I've tried to
> delete
> the folders I get 'access is denied' error messages.
>
> Can anyone please help?