"Are you sure you want to delete 'WINDOWS'?"

[Opinicus]

I've got something (invisible) stuck in my Recycle Bin. The bin's icon is
the "full" one even though there's seemingly nothing in it. When I try and
empty the bin (open or closed) I get the subject line message "Are you sure
you want to delete 'WINDOWS'?". Clicking on "Yes" fetches up the flush sound
but the icon doesn't change and the mysterious "entity", whatever it is, is
still there.

I've done a lot of Googling on this. I've tried deleting something else and
flushing the bind, tried Kelly's restorerecyclebin.reg, tried "chkdsk /F /R
/X", tried removing the bin from the desktop with Tweak, tried Q168570; and
all to no avail: the "ghost in the machine" is still there.

How do I exorcise it?

 

[Alias]

I've got something (invisible) stuck in my Recycle Bin. The bin's icon is
the "full" one even though there's seemingly nothing in it. When I try and
empty the bin (open or closed) I get the subject line message "Are you sure
you want to delete 'WINDOWS'?". Clicking on "Yes" fetches up the flush sound
but the icon doesn't change and the mysterious "entity", whatever it is, is
still there.

I've done a lot of Googling on this. I've tried deleting something else and
flushing the bind, tried Kelly's restorerecyclebin.reg, tried "chkdsk /F /R
/X", tried removing the bin from the desktop with Tweak, tried Q168570; and
all to no avail: the "ghost in the machine" is still there.

How do I exorcise it?

Have you tried looking at it in CMD?

Alias

 

[Uncle Joe]

I've got something (invisible) stuck in my Recycle Bin. The bin's icon is the "full" one even though there's
seemingly nothing in it. When I try and empty the bin (open or closed) I get the subject line message "Are
you sure you want to delete 'WINDOWS'?". Clicking on "Yes" fetches up the flush sound but the icon doesn't
change and the mysterious "entity", whatever it is, is still there.

I've done a lot of Googling on this. I've tried deleting something else and flushing the bind, tried Kelly's
restorerecyclebin.reg, tried "chkdsk /F /R /X", tried removing the bin from the desktop with Tweak, tried
Q168570; and all to no avail: the "ghost in the machine" is still there.

How do I exorcise it?

Have you tried emptying your Recycle Bin in Safe Mode?

 

[Rock]

I've got something (invisible) stuck in my Recycle Bin. The bin's icon is
the "full" one even though there's seemingly nothing in it. When I try and
empty the bin (open or closed) I get the subject line message "Are you sure
you want to delete 'WINDOWS'?". Clicking on "Yes" fetches up the flush sound
but the icon doesn't change and the mysterious "entity", whatever it is, is
still there.

I've done a lot of Googling on this. I've tried deleting something else and
flushing the bind, tried Kelly's restorerecyclebin.reg, tried "chkdsk /F /R
/X", tried removing the bin from the desktop with Tweak, tried Q168570; and
all to no avail: the "ghost in the machine" is still there.

How do I exorcise it?

Probably a corrupted recycle bin. Try this:
Replace/Repair the Recycle Bin
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts/recycbin-2.reg

 

[Opinicus]

Have you tried looking at it in CMD?

I just did. Checked the hidden recycle bins on all three drives and deleted
whatever I could find in them. On reboot, no joy. The recycle bin's icon is
still the full one and I get the "Are you sure you want to delete
'WINDOWS'?" message when I try and empty it.

 

[Opinicus]

Have you tried emptying your Recycle Bin in Safe Mode?

I just did. I logged on as Administrator, right-clicked and emptied the
Recycle Bin. Right-clicked and emptied it again and got the "Are you sure
you want to delete 'WINDOWS'?" message again. Rebooted normally. Tried it
again and no joy.

Thanks for the suggestion anyhow.

 

[Opinicus]

Probably a corrupted recycle bin. Try this:
Replace/Repair the Recycle Bin
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts/recycbin-2.reg

Just tried it Rock but no joy. The icon remains full when I refresh the
Desktop and trying to empty it fetches up the same "Are you sure" message.

 

[Opinicus]

Thanks to everyone who's made suggestions about repairing the Recycle Bin. I
just tried a rollback to a Restore Point well before I reinstalled that damn
Sony "SonicStage" program (which seems to have been the cause of the
problem). The bin icon is still "full" even though the bin looks empty and
I'm still getting the same "Are you sure" message when I try and empty it.

This is starting to become annoying...

 

[Opinicus]

Victory!

The problem was a 0-byte file called D24.dbx in the "Recycled" folder of my
Pockey drive on Z: It could not be deleted. From my computer I turned off
that drive's Recycle Bin and System Restore services and then for good
measure I reformatted the drive. (It's a second backup drive.) I deleted
some copies of files from C: then right-clicked and emptied the Recycle Bin
and walla, I got no "Are you sure you want to delete 'WINDOWS'?" message and
the icon is now the empty bin one.

Reflecting on the process, I'm not sure the reformatting was necessary. By
turning off the drive's Recycle Bin and System Restore services would I have
been able to delete all the folders on the drive including "Recycle" and
"System Volume Information"? Pity I didn't try.

Thanks to everyone who offered their help.