Odd folders appearing on my D: drive

I have two drives in my system. I've noticed lately that on my D: drive I've been seeing a series of oddly named folders appearing there. The names are long, and are a random series of characters and numbers.

When I try to view the contents I get the message "You Don't Currently Have Permission To Access This Folder" and a button "Click Continue to permanently get access to this folder".

When I click continue, the folder contains two files, both with .vdm extensions.

A typical folder name is:
D:\1e2724ed8a00dcab784e6e241ebc4a

It contains names such as:

984F4F99-4037-483A-890E-726F3A41D6C7mpasdlta.vdm
F1670E07-A29C-4C5D-831C-3CAB1235C2E6mpavdlta.vdm

Any idea what these are, why they are being created, why the D: drive, and how to stop it? Do I need these files? Can they be deleted?

Hi!! They're actually Malware Definition Updates from Windows Security Essentials, the unpacking process didn't complete the cleanup. You can go ahead and delete them but still take all the precautionary measures.... (e.g. System Restore Point, backup the folder)

ZeshanA

Dwarf said:

Hi Jeffs,

Do you have Microsoft Security Essentials installed? If so, this may explain it - see mpasdlta.vdm

Beat me to it!!!

ZeshanA

Hi guys,

Yes to both of you. Yes, I do have MSE installed.

I wonder why this just started now, and why it's only some of them that get left behind.

Also, why the D: drive and not the system (C:) drive?

I'll delete them.

Thanks

I found 4 of these folders on my F: drive. The creation date/time matches the MSE definition updates found in Windows Update. MSE should be deleting them automatically but for some reason is not .

None of you got it right. These folders can be left behind by a variety of things pushed via Microsoft Update, not just MSE. You'll have to fight to delete them in some cases, probably by taking ownership.

MacGyvr : "None of you got it right"

Pure nonsense. The fact that the folder creation date/time stamp matches the date/time stamp of the MSE definition update in Windows Update is not a coincidence. I never had this issue until I installed MSE. Plenty of other MSE users are reporting the same issue:

mpasdlta.vdm

Weird folder always been created

What are *.vdm files ?

I found *.VDM files on my backup HD - where do they come from ?