Scary consequences - was Chrome the cause??

I'd post this to the "Chrome" forum if there was one.
Ouch. I'm almost too psyched to write this, but it's the second occurrence, the last time being a year or so ago, and using some earlier version of Portable Chrome.
Download Chrome. Install it (in the portable sense of course - could be to HD but in my case to USB stick). Use it a bit.
Delete the Chrome/Data subfolder.
(I often do this: also on Firefox, FileZilla, 7-Zip, .. ..)
Use Chrome again. Experience serious problems such as:
eg.1: stick gets lost to view (disappears off Windows Explorer just as though Eject'd)
eg.2: chkdsk /f shows many unattached clusters and creation of many files under \FOUND.000
and stunningly
eg.3: Firefox [also on the stick] fails (freezes as in "Not responding") AND directories with names of the form *chrome* appear under Firefox\Data
Half a morning spent recovering from this and then checking contents against Backup.
Generally speaking I hate the look and feel of Chrome, anyway, and would simply avoid it. But it is necessary to work my banking web app effectively (it won't work in IE or Firefox) and also to work when pursuing internal stuff on my BlackBerry phone.
I'd put All This down to User Incompetence (and you probably will too) were it not for the fact of the 2nd Occurrence; and the strange trigger (which might be a red herring) of deleting the Data subdirectory and then working thereafter .. ..
Anybody else, anything similar?