.dll files on "wrong" disc

[Bosspferd]

Hey,
first, let me say I´m really sorry to post that kind of question here on the steam board, but honestly, I don´t even know where to begin my search elsewhere. So I´m really thankful for any kind of hint or suggestion.
Now for the problem:
For some reason Windows (7, 64bit) installed some .dll´s on my external HDD instead of my boot SSD. Those include like "install.res.1028.dll. As far as I understand, those got something to do with like Visual Studio, C++ runtime libraries and/or DX (I´m not too sure, though).
Having them on an external drive seems to cause a bit of a hazzle, to say the least.
Is there any way to "move" them to C:? or to reinstall them without too much trouble?
Just point me in the right direction, any hint will be appreciated.

[Silicon Vampire]

What problems are they causing and where exactly are they located on the drive?

It is not unusual to have crud left over from microsoft after installing C++ or DX. Depending n the location, it may be possible to just delete them.

I have a bunch of those right at the root of one of my game drives but they cause no issues.

[Chas.]

Right, it's a known problem with Visual C and .Net installers. Been going on for years, and I've been deleting them for years.

Just delete them. Like I said, I've been deleting them since the days of Windows Vista, no issues here.

[Bosspferd]

Thanks for your answers, and generally I´d say you´re right, I remember deleting those, too.
In this case, I ponder...
What happens is:
When I boot my pc without the external drive being connected, I can neither install nor uninstall programs. Windows tells me "Access Denied", even when UAC is turned off. My first guess of course was malware, so I tried to reset to a restore point, but that also prompted me "Access Denied".
Next I tryed to reinstall Windows (from an original DVD), but after loading the files, the installer said nope, system files corrupted, some .dll missing. (couldn´t catch which one, as pc rebooted while I was reading.)
Next I plugged in the ex. hdd, cause there´s a backup on it, and it sounded like last hope. (Note that the hdd is usually always connected, unplugged it cause I cleaned my pc, but it was not connected while installing Windows, as I unplug all but the system drive when installing OS) and tadaa, Windows starts, the programm I was trying to install when I ragequit autostarts, installs correctly, and all the programs I uninstalled before (cause I held them responsible for the problem) are back again.
I pondered, unplugged the external, started again and nope nopedy nope, same problems as before. Plugged it in again, rebooted and everything´s fine, so it´s most definetly something with the external and some files stored on it.

[Silicon Vampire]

When you first Installed Windows, did you have the external plugged in?

[Bosspferd]

Nope, when installing windows, I make sure to disconect all discs except for the one windows goes to. (Not only externals, I also unplug internal drives as well.)

[Silicon Vampire]

I'm at a loss then, as a fresh Install of windows from the DVD should not need anything from anywhere else, ever.

I'm starting to wonder if you might have some kind of controller issue. I've seen the electronics of a DVD/CD drive get weird and cause all kinds of issues. I've helped more than a few people figure that one out...

[Bosspferd]

Silicon Vampire님이 먼저 게시:

I'm at a loss then, as a fresh Install of windows from the DVD should not need anything from anywhere else, ever.

Yeah!
Thanks a lot for your time and effort, I really appreciate that you helped me.
Problem "solved". If you care to know what happened, read on, if not, thank you again and bye :)

Turned out, the problem was somewhat "deeper" than I thought. I noticed that I could not install any device drivers while running win7, neither for usb devices, nor add-ons (like graphic cards) or virtual devices. I could also not uninstall those already installed. It was however possible to "install" devices by resetting to a restore point where these drivers were installed.
Normally I´d say it´s a software error, but in this case s.th. was odd, as I could not install windows on a factory new, absolutely clean SSD.
What happened was:
The data was copied from the DVD (via usb ODD), then windows started for the first time during the installation process, tried to install the device driver for the ODD, failed, and thus was unable to execute setup.exe from the dvd.

I will probably never know what happened, or where the error derived from, but resetting cmos did the trick.