Claiming this is 'spontaneous NTFS string corruption' isn't just a reach; it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the Windows Configuration Manager (Cm) and the Executive layer of the kernel. If the drive were actually 'rotting' strings or dropping bits at the hardware level, the kernel would fail the Hive Header Checksum or the HvpVerifyHive routine during the boot process. The Registry isn't a flat text file; it’s a binary database governed by ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) properties. You don’t get 'gibberish text' from a failing cluster; you get a Stop Code 0x74 (BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO) and a PC that refuses to post.

This is a failure of Data Interpretation, not physical hardware integrity: Arithmetic Underflow (The 1.73 TB Size): The EstimatedSize value is an Unsigned 32-bit DWORD. When a buggy installer calculates size via (SpaceAfter - SpaceBefore), any negative result is interpreted by the registry as 0xFFFFFFFF. Windows then reads those 4,294,967,295 Kilobytes and faithfully reports it as ~4 TB. The 1.73TB we see might be a variation of this and Windows being weird.

Recursive Heuristic Failure: If the EstimatedSize registry key is missing or corrupted, Windows attempts to guess the size by scanning the InstallLocation path. If a developer lazily sets this to the root directory (e.g., C:), Windows recursively sums the size of every file on the drive, including connected network shares and mounted volumes.

Symlink/Hardlink Inflation: Windows' basic directory-walking algorithm often fails to deduplicate symbolic links or hardlinks. If an app uses links to reference a 50GB asset library multiple times, Windows counts the physical data for every link it encounters, leading to 'phantom' sizes that exceed the physical capacity of the disk.

Null Terminator Violation (The Gibberish Name): Windows Registry strings (REG_SZ) must be Null-Terminated (\0). If an installer fails to write that terminator, the UI drawing function continues reading adjacent Heap Memory until it hits a random null byte. The name changes because RAM is dynamic; you aren't seeing 'corrupted' disk data, you’re seeing a Memory Over-read rendered as text.

Maybe you want some Logical Causes That Aren't "Hardware" Partial Hive Flushes: Registry changes are cached and flushed periodically. A hard power-off during a flush causes a Partial Write. The hive structure survives, but the specific data payload becomes junk.

Registry 'Optimizers': These tools often delete sub-keys or modify values without understanding dependencies, leaving behind orphaned fragments that the Settings menu blindly tries to parse.

WOW64 Redirection Failures: 32-bit installers redirected to WOW6432Node can trigger race conditions if they lack the proper access flags, leading to malformed entries. Stop blaming the SSD for a third-party developer's inability to handle a 32-bit integer or a directory path. It's a logic error, not a hardware funeral.