When I replaced my Compaq Presario running 98SE with an HP Pavilion running XP SP2 I used Intellimover(R) to move my files.  Apparently I inadvertently move the Compaq system files along with them.  My 7 GB partition has only 500 MB of free space, which is not sufficient to efficiently defrag the partition.  A search for files and folders containing "cpq" yielded 151 files and folders in both C: and D: drives.  I am relatively sure these are vagabonds; they do not show up in the Add/Remove list in Control Panel.  Access to the D: drive is seemingly not allowed.  How can I, or should I, remove them safely?

Best to contact HP support with this problem.
I am fairly certain that the D: drive is used as some sort of backup drive on their computers. It looks like you have the two systems mixed on your computer.
If you have a restore disk and haven't accumulated a lot of personal data on the new computer, that would probably be the easiest thing to do. The restore disk would return the new computer to its original state and remove everything else.

Thanks for your input.  I have tried to get HP support help, but they declined to become involved.  Perhaps a full backup of all my personal data could be saved and restored after a system restoration.

Hi Eldred:

First, what a surprise that HP is so helpful! :'(

Yes, it would probably be the best thing to do to back up all your data. You might be able to move it all over to your D:\ drive, if you have enough space there, then restore your computer to its original state. If the worst comes to the worst, reinstall Windows. XP is pretty good for this, and you will have the advantage of starting off really clean. It's a hassle to reinstall all your programs, but at least you can set it up the way you really like.

If you do decide to go this route, and if you have a CD or DVD drive, it may be a good idea to make an image of your drive: with WinXP set up, all your drivers working, internet running, and all the current Windows updates installed, and having deleted all the stuff that you don't want (e.g trials for software or internet access and so on).   That CD or DVD should be a bootable one. You can do this with good imaging software. Later, what I have done is then to install all my basic, absolutely essential programs and utilities. It goes without saying, of course, that you will have WinRescue installed also.  (No, I get no commission for saying this. Ray doesn't even know me.) Then I image that, also on a bootable DVD.  Now, if ever the worst case scenario occurs, and even WinRescue can't get me out of the hole, I can restore my computer to a basic, clean functional structure without loosing many hours of work.

One thing that I like to do is set up my system so at all my data -- my documents, my client files, email messages, photos, and so on all go onto a drive which I keep exclusively for data. That makes backing up all the really important stuff easier:  my data drive. If you want to do that, then perhaps your D:\ drive could be used. I use the C:\ drive for Windows and all my installed programs. Once your C:\ drive is all OK, you can delete anything from the D:\ drive that doesn't need to be there, and use it for your data.

I leave the My Documents folder on the boot drive (the C:\ drive), because so many programs default to there for all sorts of things. But I have a "My Documents" folder on my D:\ drive. In the C:\ My Documents folder, I have a shortcut to the D:\ My Documents, and other shortcuts to some of the other data folders that I use frequently, for example : Clients, Projects, Photos, Family, etc.

However, that may be unduly complicated. In addition, there is some data that programs put on the C:\ drive, usually without telling you. For instance, many programs put critical information in C:\My Computer\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data. Others put a sub-folder into their own Program Files Folder with important information there too. So you might miss that in a backup process.

But I feel that as long as I have my own data well backed-up, in case of a crash, if WinRescue doesn't get me back on track, oh well...I do have my data, and I do have the images to fall back on.

I hope it gets sorted out OK.

Peter

D drive in my HP contains the recovery files, in lieu of CD's. I would leave it alone. Somewhere in  the literature with unit should be a mention of how to recover and that would point to the D drive.

I suggest copying desired files to CD's and then do your cleanup.