Recycler <folder

G

Guest

On my primary hard drive there is a hidden folder labeled Recycler that I
only see when I am doing a scan of some nature, NAV or whatever. About half
of the files on my system are in this folder, and I suspect they are all
junk. If I empty or delete this folder will it end civilization as we know
it? How can I empty or delete it?
 
D

Dan Seur

This is the Recycle Bin. Any of your partitions may have such a dir.
To empty it, use the desktop Recycle Bin applet.
Read up on the Recycle Bin to find out how it works.

Chuck said:
On my primary hard drive there is a hidden folder labeled Recycler that I
only see when I am doing a scan of some nature, NAV or whatever. About half
of the files on my system are in this folder, and I suspect they are all
junk. If I empty or delete this folder will it end civilization as we know
it? How can I empty or delete it?
Click to expand...



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G

George Hester

Selecting the folder in Windows Explorer should show the Recycle Bin on the
right. Does it?
 
G

Guest

Sorry... I don't think this is a Recycle Bin. I've emptied all of the
Recycle Bins I could find, and they together did not have nearly as many
files as this "Recycler". A lot (but not all) of the files in this Recycler
have long meaningless alphanumeric labels like registry entries.
 
G

Guest

This "Recycler" folder shows up in the root directory of my C: drive. When I
select my C: drive in Windows Explorer there is no Recycle Bin or Recycler on
the right side.
 
D

Dan Seur

Think again. :) Use the desktop "Recycle Bin" applet to empty the bins.
It is normal for every NTFS hard drive to have a RECYCLER dir in its
root; every FAT HDD will have a RECYCLED dir. All are hidden by default;
use "show hidden files" in Explorer to see them. Bad idea to directly
delete contents in these dirs; use the applet. An empty RECYCLER dir
will still have one file of the sort you describe; it's an indexing
structure.

The Properties function of the applet lets you set the max drive space
the dir may occupy (IIRC 10% is default.) The recycle function also will
return space to the system as needed for new files; it is designed such
that it will not displace "live" files. The actual space occupied by a
recycler dir, however, does reduce the space seen as available by
defragmenters, and this can be a problem for defraggers when a partition
is quite full.

Hope this helps.

Chuck said:
Sorry... I don't think this is a Recycle Bin. I've emptied all of the
Recycle Bins I could find, and they together did not have nearly as many
files as this "Recycler". A lot (but not all) of the files in this Recycler
have long meaningless alphanumeric labels like registry entries.
Click to expand...



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D

Dan Seur

Experiencing brain death. For "hard drive" and "HDD" below read "partition."

Dan said:
Think again. :) Use the desktop "Recycle Bin" applet to empty the bins.
It is normal for every NTFS hard drive to have a RECYCLER dir in its
root; every FAT HDD will have a RECYCLED dir. All are hidden by default;
use "show hidden files" in Explorer to see them. Bad idea to directly
delete contents in these dirs; use the applet. An empty RECYCLER dir
will still have one file of the sort you describe; it's an indexing
structure.

The Properties function of the applet lets you set the max drive space
the dir may occupy (IIRC 10% is default.) The recycle function also will
return space to the system as needed for new files; it is designed such
that it will not displace "live" files. The actual space occupied by a
recycler dir, however, does reduce the space seen as available by
defragmenters, and this can be a problem for defraggers when a partition
is quite full.

Hope this helps.






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Click to expand...



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G

Guest

OK, more questions...

1. Where is this "applet" you mention... How do I find it?

2. My C: HDD is NTFS, therefore the folder "RECYCLER"... is this the same
as the "scratch" file?

3. In Folder Options I have checked Show Hidden Files and Folders, but
Recycler does not appear... How come?
 
D

Dan Seur

Start | Help | Search | enter "recycle", no quotes | read it all

Chuck said:
OK, more questions...

1. Where is this "applet" you mention... How do I find it?

2. My C: HDD is NTFS, therefore the folder "RECYCLER"... is this the same
as the "scratch" file?

3. In Folder Options I have checked Show Hidden Files and Folders, but
Recycler does not appear... How come?
Click to expand...



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G

George Hester

"This "Recycler" folder shows up in the root directory of my C: drive" -
Good.

"When I select my C: drive in Windows Explorer..." - No bad.

Select the Recycler Folder on the left in the tree view and on the right you
should see your Recycle Bin. Do you?
 
G

Guest

The only time I see "Recycler" is when I am running a scan, NAV or whatever.
It does not show up in My Computer or Windows Explorer or anywhere else that
I can find. I have the option of showing hidden files/folders selected in my
Control Panel.
 
G

George Hester

Go to Windows Explorer | Tools | Folder Options... | View | and check or
uncheck as the case may be so that NOTHING is hidden from you and make sure
file extentions show for EVERY file type. There are three pertinent entries
there.

Then you should see Recycler when you select the C drive with the tree view
of it expanded on the left in Windows Explorer. Then select the Recycler
folder on the left you should see your Recycle Bin on the right. This
assumes you are using the NTFS file system not FAT32 or FAT16.

--

George Hester
_________________________________
Chuck T said:
The only time I see "Recycler" is when I am running a scan, NAV or whatever.
It does not show up in My Computer or Windows Explorer or anywhere else that
I can find. I have the option of showing hidden files/folders selected in my
Control Panel.
Click to expand...
 
G

Gary Smith

Recycler has the "system" attribute. In order to see it in Explorer, you
need to go into Folder Options > View and UNcheck "Hide protected
operating system files (Recommended)". Microsoft people are better off
not knowing about these. They're wrong, of course.

If your Recycle Bin gets corrupted and won't empty properly when you
right-click on the icon and click Empty Recycle Bin, you can fix things by
deleting the entrie Recycler folder. Windows will complain, but you can'y
hurt anything by doing so. The folder will be re-created when it's needed
again.
 
G

Guest

George:

Bingo! Your suggestion and a similar one from Gary Smith finally surfaced
the Recycler folder, with 72,000 files and 3.6 Gigs of space, all junk, which
I deleted. There was one folder ("NPROTECT") that would not delete.

Thanks...
 
G

Guest

Bingo! Your suggestion and a similar one from George Hester finally surfaced
the Recycler folder, with 72,000 files and 3.5 Gigs of space, all junk, which
I deleted. There was one folder ("NPROTECT") that would not delete.

Thanks...
 
G

Gary Smith

You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback.

Chuck T said:
Bingo! Your suggestion and a similar one from George Hester finally surfaced
the Recycler folder, with 72,000 files and 3.5 Gigs of space, all junk, which
I deleted. There was one folder ("NPROTECT") that would not delete.
Click to expand...
 

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