Ray wrote on Thu, 28 Jul 2005:
Hi All
When I ran Norton AV recently it detected two infected files but was unable
to delete them. The location of the files was given as
C:\RECYCLER\verylongnumber\......... where verylongnumber is a security ID
beginning S-1-5-21-
The normal recycle bin is on my desktop but there is no sign of this
"secured" recycle bin, which I presume is hidden in some way.
Does anyone have any idea how I can delete these files?
Thanks, as always, for you time.
Ray
Hi Ray
The folder with the "very long number" name *is* the Recycle Bin and
where files awaiting "final" deletion are stored. You can see this for
yourself by putting a test file in the bin and then opening Explorer and
looking at C:\Recycler\very_long_number. You have to have set the
options for viewing System and Hidden files to do this.
Sometimes a file can get corrupted and "stuck" in the bin, though it's
not visible when you look inside the bin from Windows. If the solutions
already posted don't fix it for you, try this: (please don't be put off
by the length, it's really easy to do. The parts in brackets describe
what you should see.)
Click Start > run, type cmd, click OK. (Command Prompt opens)
Type cd C:\recycler <enter> (directory changes to C:\recycler)
Type dir /ah <enter> (shows hidden files)
You should see 3 entries with <DIR > next to them. One is a dot, one is
2 dots, and one is the very long number, starting S-1-5-21. I'm not sure
if the name of this file is always the same, so you need to look at your
own one.
Type cd <the very long number, without these brackets> <enter>
(directory changes to C:\recycler\very_long_number)
Type dir (you should get a listing of any files in the Recycle Bin)
Files in the bin have their names (but not extensions) changed and they
normally look something like this: Dc22.TTF, for example, is a font file
I deleted. But if there are any corrupted files they may look different
from that.
If you can see them, try deleting them from there:
Type del *.* (star-dot-star) <enter>
If asked: Are you sure Y/N type y <enter>
Or if they are not files but folders (with <DIR> by their names in the
directory listing) try typing RD <foldername> <enter>
The type dir <enter> again to see if they're gone.
If you can't see them or they won't delete, try doing the whole thing
again in Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
Hope this helps some.
(P.S. If you try this and empty your bin, but find when you come back to
Windows that the bin icon is still showing full and doesn't change even
with F5 refresh; fix it by putting a test file in the bin and then
emptying it.