Long folder names with scrambled characters and MRT-file within

[burton]

Hello,

I have weird folder names like "31477affc4ff17a5e3ba" sitting in my C: and D: drives, not even inside are program files. Inside is a .exe file named "MRT.exe" which seems to have only appeared since I remounted my harddisk into my new Win7 PC from a previous Vista system. I tried mounting it back to Vista but the folders stay the same and look scrambled.

Whilst reading on the net I find articles that MRT-file is malicious software, but I dont agree and also by reading this link:
http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/mrt

Could anybody help identify whether these are newly created folders that I can delete, or whether these are corrupted folders that have signs to believe this the case? I havent tried recuva yet since I believe this is only useful for directories deleted that are in a recoverable and readable state. Any similar suggestions of usefull tools for recovery?

Thanks, Burton

[Salmon Trout]

They aren't 'scrambled characters', they are 'hex strings', and the mrt.exe program files are the Microsoft Malware Removal Tool. (mrt is not the extension - .exe is the extension). They are not dangerous and it is safe to delete them. You may wish to keep the most recent such folder.