I didn't have these folders until I clicked SOMEWHERE to SAVE SOMETHING, amd or windows update? Can't remember what or where I CLICKED and now I have 40 folders of reall long long names that I wish I could get rid of or stop saving. Any ideas on what or where I clicked? It might be what you need to click on too?I know it is not a system folder because I can change the name of it with no problem. I have tried rebooting and then trying to delete it but still no luck. Folder is not on the desktop. The sub folders are "amd" and "i386". The root folder I can change the name but not the sub folders. They are the ones that I can't delete to delete the root folder
CCleaner or ATF doesn't delete them. They are around 11 MB's apiece and now I have about 70 of them. I didn't have them before until I thought it would be a good idea to see or know what I had updated. Bad idea. Can't remember where I checked to have a record of the updated stuff, either a windows update CHECK BOX place or a driver update CHECK BOX place or ANOTHER update CHECK BOX place.?. My System restore doesn't work. Would really like to get rid of the MB'S and visual Clutter Problems.It's probably records of updates, like you notice yourself. Names like ...P_S-1-5-21-3400200096-3810947296-1934613864-1000?
You could try CCleaner, http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Generally, it may be risky to delete something you don't know. Windows 7 is well protected, but you might by accident cause damage to your system by deleting something important. CCleaner is a safe option, run it with default settings.
How much space do these folders take?
EDIT: This post seems to have turned out weird...
I tried that but will try it again.I had this problem before. I boot up to safe mode and delete the folder from there. It worked for me. You can try.
Thanks. But I didn't have them before. So wouldn't they be just EXTRA copies? Or SEEN copies".?@Jolie: Those real long weird file names that Titanic mentions are System Restore points that are indexed between the Registry and the System Shadow copy that Windows System Restore uses. That being said, if you DID successfully delete them, and you tried to do System Restore to undo your deletes, that's why your System Restore no longer works, since you deleted some if not all of your System Restore Points!
Unless you've got a really small hard drive (say less than 60GB) it doesn't make sense to delete those files, maybe after a year or two or if you exceed 10GB or something; which is like 100 Restore Points. Be careful not to delete any Restore Point folder within the last 90 days, since if you do delete all of them in the last 90 days you'll have nothing to Restore back to within that last 90 days, and if you keep older ones, you could lose all your work within the last 90 days (3 months).
Another thing no one has mentioned here, and it's probably trite to do so, but you should always BACKUP all of your Personal Data on the hard drive ( for example the C:\Users\Username\My Documents or C:\Users\Username\Libraries folders) depending on which version of Windows you're running. Playing around with Registry cleaners and editing programs are VERY HIGH RISK! That means if you make a mistake, you could crash your Windows MFT (Master File Table) and Hash Index Tables. That is often an unrecoverable problem, and requires a hard drive reformat and complete Windows re-load. If you haven't used any of these tools before, I say, "Always better Safe than Sorry", and BACKUP ALL YOUR DATA BEFORE YOU START MESSING WITH YOUR REGISTRY!
Good Luck!
BIGBEARJEDI
Hi
As someone else suggested when I run into one of these I boot from my Ubuntu (linux) disk and delete them.
You can boot your computer from the disk even if Windows is totally blotto, and backup any files you need before a reinstall if you ever have to.
It will supply and internet connection, a browser and all the basic services.
It's easy to make a disk, and it's worth doing it just for the reassurance of knowing you can get into your computer if you need to.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
I've saved data from a lot of crashed computers with it.
Mine and other peoples, it seems to boot almost anything.
Mike
But with these new motherboards.... I can't take a Live-Linux-CD and boot. This UEFI system was meant to kill Linux....!!!!