What is the FOUND.000 folder, why does it appear and is it possible to delete it

Sometimes there is an unexpected shutdown of Windows - pulled out of the socket, turned off the electricity, etc. The next time the system boots, it usually starts a file system checker utility called ChkDsk. This utility checks the file system on all available drives and tries to recover the damaged information. And after a successful download, you can find certain directories with FOUND name and number on the disk. The FOUND.000 folder may appear on a flash drive, and sometimes there are several of them - with numbers 001, 002, etc. Sometimes they are quite large or there are many of them, and then the question arises as to what to do with them and whether they can be removed, since they are clearly created by the system for some of their own purposes.

The purpose and ability to delete folders FOUND.000.

FOUND.000 - what is this folder and why does it appear?

Such a mysterious directory is on most computers, sometimes on different disks and even several pieces. The fact is that, sooner or later, any system crashes and starts with the file system check utility. It is she who creates these directories. When ChkDsk scans the disk and finds bad sectors, it tries to read files from them. Then they are saved in a directory called FOUND, in files named FILE0000.CHK, where the numbers are in order. They can not be opened with anything, they are like archives, and each can contain several regular files from damaged areas. When the system was booted, the folders with the saved information are no longer needed, because the ChkDsk utility has already worked with them, and has restored everything that it could. However, they are not automatically deleted, and the user can also try to extract something from them. If the FOUND.000 directory appears on the C system drive, then it will most likely include some system files needed for Windows to work.

FOUND folder search

If you try to find such directories on your disks right now, this will not work. The fact is that they are systemic and hidden, and by default they are not visible in a regular explorer. Of course, if you use some file manager, for example, Total Commander, it will show both hidden directories and hidden files, just like regular ones. But you can also configure the conductor to show everything. To do this, go to the control panel and select "Folder Options". In the window that appears, on the “View” tab in the “Advanced Settings” list, uncheck “Hide protected system files” and turn on “Show hidden files, folders and drives”. Then click "Apply" or "Ok." Now you can open folders such as FOUND.000 and many others that were previously invisible. But we do not recommend touching anything in them, let alone delete or rename them.

Recover files from FOUND

Since files of the form FILE0000.CHK are like archives, there must be programs that can extract something useful from them. Yes, such programs exist, and there are many of them. All of them have different possibilities, but you should not count on them especially - sometimes they turn out to be powerless. Most Popular:

  • UnCHK - defines 25 file formats. Can count them from CHK and save to the same place where they were before the accident. You can add new formats and set different scanning methods.
  • CHK-Back - recognizes 20 formats with the ability to expand the list. But it does not save the extracted information to its original place, but to the place indicated by the user.
  • CHK-Mate - recognizes 40 extensions, including music, images, mail. Saves to the ChkBack Results subfolder.

We repeat - even these powerful tools do not guarantee that it will be possible to extract information even partially, since it is rather difficult to recover files from the FOUND.000 and other directories. They have to pull literally bytes.

Remove FOUND or content

After you have tried to extract something from these directories, you can delete them. They are not needed for the system, and it will no longer access them, since the ChkDsk utility has already worked with them. Simply, if they exist, and a new accident happens, new directories with the same name and other serial numbers will be created. Therefore, you can safely remove FOUND.000 and other folders with the same name, and all their contents. However, this may not be so easy to do - the system prevents the removal of service folders or files. You can get around this in different ways:

  • Boot the computer from any disk or flash drive with a Live-CD image and delete.
  • Install the Unlocker program, which allows you to unprotect and delete even system directories.
  • Everything is simpler on a flash drive - you can simply format it by first copying all the necessary information to another place.

Deleting these folders will not affect the operation of the computer, but sometimes allows you to free up a lot of disk space.