Strange directories appearing on disk D like 5c432ec5d4cdb34ef7ab9089b

[Koles]

Hi !

I am not sure if this question is more related with Windows 7 or Lenovo software or some other software, but my intuition told me to post here. Some stupid process is slowly creating these directories on my disk D and every time I remove them, they are slowly re-created (like ~ few dirs a day). When removing them, Windows asks for confirmation with message like ~ "this folder jest shared with with other users, are you sure you want to delete ?" for each directory, then once "to delete this you must have administrator privilages" and then again that question "shared blabla" for each dir. Strange. Does anybody know which process is creating these stupid directories? I want this to stop from happening, it is just rubbish.

 

[IoNGeNeRaL]

Could you take a screenshot for us of the Task Manager's Process list?

 

[Koles]

 

[Lance1]

Hello Koles and Welcome to W7F. Your reply is blank so I'm assuming you don't know how to post a screenshot. So here's a quick pictorial I throw together.

When you start a post, you'll note a button at the bottom called Go Advanced, click it.

Next scroll down and click Manage Attachments.

Under Manage Attachments click Browse.

Now Browse to were your screenshot is, select it and click Open.

Now you see your screenshot there. Now click upload!

There you go! hope this helps.

 

[Koles]

Sorry, screenshots on Dropbox were visible only to me.
Here they are attached.

 

[Lance1]

They look like windows update folders to me. Nothing to worry about. Does windows have full control of updates?

 

[Tpau]

I've got some folders like those you have, this folder is one of them, d7488b49c283e49d865f59ff5cdbbc74, after taking a look inside one of the files it looks like they are the security patches I've been installing.

this file "Windows6.1-KB3192391-x64-pkgProperties" contains the following text

ApplicabilityInfo="Windows 7.0 Client SP1;Windows 7.0 Server Core SP1;Windows 7.0 Embedded SP1;Windows 7.0 Server SP1;Windows 7.0 WinPE 3.1;"
Applies to="Windows 6.1"
Build Date="2016/10/06"
Company="Microsoft Corporation"
File Version="1"
Installation Type="FULL"
Installer Engine="Component Based Servicing - WUSA.exe"
Installer Version="6.0.0.0"
KB Article Number="3192391"
Language="ALL"
Package Type="Security Update"
Processor Architecture="amd64"
Product Name="Windows 6.1"
Support Link="http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=3192391"

 

[Koles]

These folders are always empty. Second I remember this was not always the case there were created all over my disk D. Anyway this is littering my partition, I want to stop this nonsence from happening. How can I do this ?

 

[Megahertz07]

As mentioned by Lance, these folders were created by Win update as temporary folders.
If they are empty, it's safe to delete them.
Do a cleanup with %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe and select all option.

 

[Koles]

I know this. My question was HOW CAN I STOP COMPUTER FROM RE-CREATING THESE DIRECTORIES ALL OVER AGAIN ? Thanks...

 

[Megahertz07]

I know this. My question was HOW CAN I STOP COMPUTER FROM RE-CREATING THESE DIRECTORIES ALL OVER AGAIN ? Thanks...

Disable updates

 

[Koles]

So, noone knows how to stop these nonsence directories to show up ?

 

[Koles]

As mentioned by Lance, these folders were created by Win update as temporary folders.
If they are empty, it's safe to delete them.
Do a cleanup with %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe and select all option.

This didn't help. Beside it is not about deleting them, but stopping them from being re-created.

 

[Koles]

Disable updates

First - are you sure that Windows automatic updates are causing this ?
Second, I don't want to disable Windows updates, I want to keep my Windows up to date. Also I remember that few years ago these stupid folders didn't show up. Why? I am really not sure it is about Windows updates. And why do they show up to partition D, not C?

 

[Lance1]

That's a valid point. Update folders are created on the C:\ Root. You say that they are empty. When you right click properties on one of the folders does it's size come up as 0? Have you run malware scans on your system?

 

[lehnerus2000]

Those folders can show up on any partition (not limited to C).

In my case, they used appear on the partition that has the most free space available.
I have seen them on a completely different HDD (to the one that has the OS on it).

I haven't noticed any of the weird update folders, since I started using the Security-Only updates.

 

[Callender]

Those folders can show up on any partition (not limited to C).

In my case, they used appear on the partition that has the most free space available.
I have seen them on a completely different HDD (to the one that has the OS on it).

I haven't noticed any of the weird update folders, since I started using the Security-Only updates.

Check this post:

Manual Win Update folder remnants - safe to delete?

If ROOTDRIVE is not set at a command line or authored into the Property table, the installer sets this property. During an administrative installation the installer sets ROOTDRIVE to the first connected network drive it finds that can be written to. If it is not an administrative installation, or if the installer can find no network drives, the installer sets ROOTDRIVE to the local drive that can be written to having the most free space.

Make sure you have the most free space on windows partition compared with free space on other partitions.
Make sure that there are no failed updates.
Run advanced disk cleanup to include windows update cleanup.
When installing windows updates make sure that you temporarily disable any security software that could interfere with the update process.

 

[Koles]

Still I don't see any clear solution how to stop this crap from appearing all over again. Which idiot in Microsoft implemented this mechanism? I'm going to shoot him I've been Googling for ROOTDRIVE info, but still I don't know what to do with it and even where to found it... in the last resort I want these folders to appear on C: instead, but no, this is not a drive that has most free space and it will NOT be.

 

[Callender]

I want these folders to appear on C: instead, but no, this is not a drive that has most free space and it will NOT be.

Your choices appear to be: Dismount those other drives or partitions when downloading and installing windows updates (not sure if this works) or create more free space on your windows partition than exists on other partitions.

ROOTDRIVE is set by the msi msu installer and as far as I know you cannot change this.

There is a discussion here:

Microsoft Updates And External Drives

In my opinion you should just manually delete those folders once the updates have installed.