How can I get rid of RECYCLER/NPROTECT extraneous files?

As my system was always getting low on virtual memory (paging), I realized that my disk space was being eaten up by the RECYCLER/NPROTECT files that would grow at an alarming rate (50GB in two months).  I do not know what triggered this sudden increase (I suspect it started after a Live-Update session before Christmas).  Something went wrong and the Norton SystemWork's Recycler would not release its files even when I emptied the Recycled Bin (both Windows and NSW).  I followed the recommendation of one of the threads about removing NSW, taking ownership of the RECYCLER directories, used Disk Cleaning, even renaming it, but I always get and error message that tells me the files do not exist (can't rename, can’t copy, can't delete any of the files I see)!  Even at the DOS cmd...  Although I can see these files in the directory through Explorer and list all of the files in DOS with the DIR cmd...As a test, I reinstalled NSW, and the problem reoccurred immediately.  Over 150 files of different sizes and odd types were created as you can see from the picture.  The Bad/Bad directory (originally RECYCLER/NPROTECT renamed) is the one that contains ~23000 undeletable files to the tune of 50GB!  After I reinstalled NSW, the RECYCLER/NPROTECT directory got filled with about 150 files totaling ~144MB.  Notice the pattern between the two directories;  the filenames are similar and the extension and size patterns are repetitive.  Note that only the file with a dot and no extension cannot be deleted all others can be deleted (hence the reason why you only see "dot" files in the Bad/Bad directory, all other were deleted (about 10%).

 

[edit: Removing broken link.]


Message Edited by shannons on 02-14-2009 07:27 AM