Want to delete folders with long hexadecimal names

[Redmage913]

Greetings,

I have an external hard drive that has many folders with hexadecimal names. I have no idea what they're for, but they're becoming rather unsightly and a little unwieldy when I want to access the drive.

I've included a screenshot of a partial view of Windows Explorer in the root directory of my external hard drive. The first six only report around 450 KB in usage.

What are these directories and are they safe (or is it possible) to remove them?

I didn't know how to search for this, so if a basic guide exists for this already, all I request is a link to that guide.

Thanks!
--Red

 

[Layback Bear]

This might help you understand what they are. (colors)

Web colors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Redmage913]

I don't understand what web colors has to do with this.

I had access to one of those folders. I looked inside and there were two subdirectories that I cannot open - amd64 and i386.

I am going to assume this has to do with the two major PC architectures, but past that I have no idea what they're for.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
--Red

 

[fseal]

Those are temp folders for installing programs/updates. Did you by any chance move your windows temp folder to your D drive or something?

Windows would normally clean those out of the temp folder, but if it's been moved to a removable drive maybe not. You should be able to just delete them all, though you may have to "Take Ownership" of them first...

(You can find out the current location of your temp folder by typing %tmp% into the start->search box)

 

[sygnus21]

I don't understand what web colors has to do with this.

Same here

Those are temp folders for installing programs/updates. Did you by any chance move your windows temp folder to your D drive or something?

Windows would normally clean those out of the temp folder, but if it's been moved to a removable drive maybe not. You should be able to just delete them all, though you may have to "Take Ownership" of them first...

(You can find out the current location of your temp folder by typing %tmp% into the start->search box)

What he said. If you need to take ownership to delete - Take Ownership of file - Vista Forums

Windows 7 Take Ownership & Grant Permissions to Access Files & Folder

 

[Redmage913]

Understood, I'll give it a try tomorrow when I have access to the external HDD. I'll let you know how it does.

Thanks for your input thus far!

--Red