Conor wrote:

John Doe says...

There is a folder "e8bfcca65cf8e0f3f4" on my secondary hard
drive. The primary drive is an SSD. The weird folder is "access
denied" from the XP SP3 command prompt, but accessible by the
Windows 7 beta CD. It contains an "updspapi.dll" file that
appears to be a Microsoft file, but why so difficult to remove?

I suspect it is related to either the SSD drive or the Windows 7
beta.

Temporary file and folder left behind after applying a service
pack.

I had to use DOS and dismount the drive/volume before formatting.
I have applied many service packs, none of the remains were that
difficulat to remove. However, I recently slipstreamed service pack
3 into the original Windows XP files to make an updated CD, using
the most popular utility. Perhaps it was that process.