...\_ToBeDeleted folders in Web Baskets directory

I am in the process of moving a v6.12 system to a new server. During the file copy of the Web Baskets directory I see many folders with _ToBeDeleted appended to the name. Opening any of these leads to the familiar 000\000\000 folder structure and eventually to an empty document folder. (There are also many folders in the directory that are not empty). 

Clearly I could delete these but I'm wondering why they are marked to be deleted but still exist. (System was upgraded from v6.9 way back when). Is there or was there some mechanism in DW that should have deleted these but did not for some reason? Or was this designed to be taken care of by a future upgrade?

Any clues appreciated,

My 2 cents...There was an upgrade point ( i forget which version) that changed the Tray folder behavior.  It was that as trays took on new files they would create new folders and never delete them; continuous grow of folders tree.  The DW changed that behavior and the Tray folders would self clean up and go away whn no longer used.  This is likely what you are seeing.  There should be a process as part of the BPS service that handles these folders.

It would be nice to hear from a DW person on the official answer.... 

Craig is correct. Previous to 6.12 the Tray folder structure was never deleted. Even though the folders were empty the structure still used up space in the MFT. A new BPS clean up service is in place that periodically cleans up the file system by removing the "To be deleted" folders.


Phil Robson
Senior Director Client Services, Americas