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Dear Community

Any of you already faced this ? A folder under D:\ has hundreds of subfolders with bizarre names (see attached screencap). All are empty but I find it really weired.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

MMG

Folders_with_ZZ._.ZZ_._.Z_._.Z_in_name_.jpg 70.41 KB
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Dani AI

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This looks exactly like the leftovers created by a free-space wiping tool. As noted and confirmed, those cleaners often create many temporary files or folders with random names while overwriting free space; if the process is interrupted (or the cleaner leaves traces) those placeholders can be left behind on D:.

Safe cleanup and troubleshooting:

  • Stop the cleaner and disable any scheduled wipe/free-space tasks.
  • From an elevated Command Prompt remove the leftover folders recursively. Example (run as Administrator):
cd "D:\ParentFolder"
rmdir /S /Q "NameOfWeirdFolder"

To remove many matching folders in one go from CMD:

for /d %i in (ZZ*) do rmdir /S /Q "%i"

If deletion fails:

chkdsk D: /f

Prevention and safer alternatives:

  • Turn off the free-space wipe feature unless you specifically need it. These operations are slow and can leave artifacts if interrupted.
  • Use built-in tools such as cipher /w:D: or Sysinternals SDelete for controlled free-space cleansing (SDelete: https://learn.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/sdelete). Read the docs before running; both take time and should be left to finish.
  • If folders reappear after removal, check Task Scheduler, startup entries, and the cleaner's settings for recurring jobs. Run a current antivirus/malware scan to rule out other causes.

Backup important data before aggressive filesystem operations.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for gerbil

Do you have CCleaner? Is it set to under Tools > Drive Wipe to Wipe Free Space on that drive? Then uncheck that, delete the folders. By free space, CCleaner means space occupied by already deleted files [the files often still exist unless overwritten, but the pointer in the file manager is altered so as to show them as deleted].
If it is not set to wipe free space then it is playing at wiping some drive space, so uninstall CCLeaner, reinstall it, and delete those folders.

Edited by gerbil because: n/a
Member Avatar for MMG

Many thanks Gerbil for clarifying this. Yes indeed, CCleaner is installed and that option is checked.

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