So I made another post here about saving my settings.  That's fine and dandy now, I reinstalled BDO and my settings were saved (thanks guys), with your advice.  But after reinstalling BDO, I find myself in the same predicament that started it all to begin with!  I sent a ticket and the GM is helpful, but hoping someone else here might have some additinoal insight.  Here's the story in outline format:

1) Was cleaning out my PC, getting rid of unused apps.

2) Found that I had 2 Black Desert Online installtions.  See image:

3) I uninstalled the 2017 installation.  The 41.2 GB one installed in 2017.

4) Tried logging into BDO and got an error message.  I did not screenshot it, sorry.  It was an error that would not bring up the BDO launcher at all.

5) Did a System Restore.  Didn't work.  Launcher was bugged.  See image:

6) Contacted Support and made a forum post.  Concluded to do a fresh install and backup some files to ensure I keep my settings (UI, hotkeys, cooldown slots, etc.).  I then uninstalled the remaining BDO app with Drakania picture on it.  PC was clear of any BDO installations in Apps & Features Windows 10 menu.

7) Reinstalled BDO from website.  Game works flawlessly, all settings are in tact.  However.........

8) I have two BDO installations again and the "2017" one is back.  Eating up 40+ GB of drive space.  I sent a ticket and support says it's OK to uninstall the 2017 one.  But I am weary because I don't want to run into the same problem I originally had again. 

Any advice?  What can I do?  Has anyone experienced this same issue?  If you don't mind, can you screenshot how your BDO installtion looks like in your Apps & Features Windows menu?  Thanks.

Try uninstall both , an reinstal the client , then if both are back i would be doing a scan , probably bdo patcher being weird so uninstalling both an reinstall should remove the issue

Apparently I do not even have Black Desert installed atm.

Its probably Windows that is being a buggy mess as usual tbh. My list does show that I have a 119GB installation of Halo the Master Chief collection which I know that I have removed.

I didn't run into such a problem before. However there was a time in my past, when I couldn't run properly BDO even after a repair. The launcher even refused to open up. It turned out that my Windows was becoming a buggy mess and after many experiments I decided to make a reinstall of Win10 as a final means to fix my problems. It did work at the cost of time. For me it was worth it.

Perhaps you should consider it, in case you run out of options.

To me it looks like a registry issue. Because 2 versions of the (almost) same app means some differences in keys, and these keys are in the registry.

Try to uninstall both, then delete manually everything you can find from BDO (even empty folders), then go to Registry, use the search function to look for Black Desert Online, delete all of them -Please do a backup before deleting- just in case. 

Then use a program like CCleaner, to clean up any last reminents. Restart system and install BDO.

I dont think Windows has anything to do with this.

#1. Never do a system restore. This will cause a lot of your apps to stop functioning properly. Avoid this unless you need a temporary solution to backup your files.

#2. Rarely do you ever need to format your computer in this day in age. Thankfully you don't have to do it every 6 months like back in the day. The only time I would recommend it is when your computer goes completely FUBAR, especially after a system restore.

#3. Sometimes the App & Features thing is buggy and will show something is installed when it isn't. You can delete the BDO folder (BDO 2017) wherever it was installed before. No need to worry about other files, the bulk of the files is in that one folder in I think program files x86.

You could delete registries and even the old appdata / document folders but there's no real need to it as it won't have any noticeable performance issues on your computer, nor will the files be big enough to even worry about.

For your main BDO, if it did break after system restore you will have to unintall it and re-install it completely. I would avoid using any program like CCleaner, they're not reliable to use. PA doesn't really manage the 2017 client so you're on your own as far as they are concerned (probably). Again, just do what I recommend and it'll be ok. :)

PS. if you want to keep your game settings and screenshots etc... backup /Documents/Black Desert and restore it after re-installing the game.

Thanks for all your help, everyone.  Very awesome of you and I appreciate the time you took to respond.

As an update, I tried uninstalling the 2017 installation, but to no avail.  I got this error message:

Tried using the uninstall too from Control Panel and even tried a program called Revo, still didn't work:

I searched online and couldn't find much more solutions for a nagging app that says it's already deleted, but still shows up.  I didn't feel comfortable editing the Registry, so I opened up Control Panel (image above) and uninstalled.  When it gave an error, saying it's already been uninstalled (or something like that), it asked if I'd like to remove it from the list and I clicked OK.  It doesn't show up anymore, but I'm not 100% sure if the 41 GB is actually freed up.

In File Explorer, I checked my C drive, and it appeared that I had more space than before.  Around 40ish GB worth of space was then available (from 40 GB available to about 80 GB after this).  So IDK what happened, so I think the issue is resolved.  Moved Street Fighter V and Starcraft II to my other drive which helped free up a lot of space on C.  I also cleared out a few more things, like games I don't play anymore, and I'm up to 120+ GB of free space, which is more than enough to make me feel comfortable.

So I guess the issue is resolved -- BDO works, settings are in tact, and drive space is cozy.  I would love to see exactly what apps and the exact location of apps are when I go into Windows 10 "Storage" menu.  Not sure exactly how to, though.  But since I now have lots of free space on my main drive (M.2 drive), I guess I'm satisfied as of now.  In the future, I'll put other games on one of my other drives -- games that don't require much drive speed.  Thanks again for all your help, have a great weekend!!! <3