network references

When we right click on start and choose "explore" with
winXP and then goto network computers, originally we
see all the nodes. But after accessing them for a few days
when we do this we see all the previous pathnames in no
real order representing the actual hard drive of the node.
It's kinda of confusing because it will show sub folders
in front of their parent folder. What causes this and can
I delete them and start over without messing anything up?