Unreadable files created on hard drive

I've been a mac user for over a decade now. This is the first time I've had this problem.
Files are periodically created on my Macintosh HD, Finder, or whatever you want to call it. It's at the highest level. They have cryptic names. I can't even describe the problem.
This is the label on one of four files that was created in a one hour period yesterday. If I delete them, they reappear in a matter of days or weeks:
e%CFH%CE9Ј%CF%%CE%DD%D0Gў%CF%DE%D2%FCр%D0%D3(%D2%D1S%D3+%D2mЌӠҾ%D0%C7Ӂ%D2%ED%D0 %C5%D3f%D1|дҗ%D0%EF%CF%E2%D12%D3%D1)%D5XO%BFG%84M%8A?N
I'm not even sure what question to ask to research any further. Anyone have any suggestions on whats going on or how to approach the problem?
iMac Snowleopard, Macbook 10.4, Time capsule, Apple TV (stream mode), iphone, HP printer

Ok, I discovered what causes these un-readble / garbled files to be created!
When I scan something on the HP All in One (C4385) printer connected via wifi, and then go to the File menu and select "Add New Image Region" THEN (at that moment in time) a new file is created at the HD level. These files are not part of the scanned image. The scanned image is saved as normal in the directory I select in the scan dialogue box.
The question remains, Why does it occur? And, how to prevent them?

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Is there anything I need to do besides drag & drop these over & then delete the files on my hard drive? I feel like I read somewhere that there was a special backup procedure.
I am almost out of space b/c of a ton of photos & videos, and I have a time machine but want something else so that I can access & use the files at any time in the future to make videos, photo albums, etc.
I found an old post on here (pasted below) but I don't really get the 'alias' thing- can't I just drag all the files to a new folder on the external hard drive & delete them from the old folder rather than having to worry about creating a new folder with the same name so programs can access it?
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/Home/Documents/
/Home/Downloads/
/Home/Movies/
/Home/Music/
/Home/Pictures/
/Home/Sites/
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Steve, I think confused everyone by using the term 'backing up' in the title of my orig post. I'll try to use more correct terminology.
My problem arose when I attached my external drive device to my pc and 'copied' C: My Pictures' (which contains my images in a folder called All Images and my .lrcat) to external drive F:. I had two reasons in mind for doing this. I wanted to transfer my current .lrcat and All Images from my pc to my laptop via the external drive and I also wanted to have a (safe-keeping) 'back up' on the external drive.
When I opened F: and checked some files in All Images I discovered that all my .dng files were missing - no .dng icon - nothing. All my other images (jpegs, etc.) were fine. This was my first batch of .dngs in LR so it's a learning process. I thought I'd missed something that needed to be done in order to be able to 'copy' those .dngs to F:, but didn't know what to do.
Perhaps I should add that the .dng files in the C: All Images folder appear as .dng icons which, when double-clicked, open in CS3, so they are THERE.
Some of answers above, perhaps because I misled them with my terminology, seemed to indicate that I should have 'saved' the metadata. That was useful but didn't seem to quite answer why the files were completely missing from the All Images file (which is the folder into which the RAWs were 'copied' upon original Import and converting to .dngs).
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Sean Dale1 wrote:
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Message was edited by: Emily80

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Message was edited by: BobZune

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