C:\RECYCLER

[The Doctor]

I originally believed that the C:\RECYCLER folder was for the Recycle
Bin, however after emptying the Recycle Bin that folder reduced from
2.something Gb to 1.7 Gb in size. So what is the RECYCLER folder for?

 

[John John]

The Recycler folder is only used on NTFS partitions and it contains a
Recycle Bin for every user who logs on the computer. If you think about
it for a few seconds it only makes sense. Let's say that Tom, Dick and
Harry all use the computer. When Tom is logged on and he empties the
Recycle Bin do you think that the files that Dick and Harry have sent to
the Recycle Bin should also be deleted? What if tomorrow Harry finds
out that he deleted one of his files by mistake and wants to restore it
from the Recycle Bin? Now you understand the concept, every Tom, Dick
and Harry should not be emptying recycle bins that aren't theirs, that
is what the Recycler folder is for, it separates each users bin.

John

 

[Wesley Vogel]

C:\RECYCLER also has a subfolder for every user on the machine. The
subfolders are named with the SID # of the user. The SID # folder is
HIDDEN.

C:\RECYCLER\Your SID # is YOUR Recycle Bin.

This is MY SID #
S-1-5-21-1708537768-15xx36667-1202660629-1003

This is MY Recycle Bin
C:\RECYCLER\S-1-5-21-1708537768-15xx36667-1202660629-1003

For me, looking in
C:\RECYCLER\S-1-5-21-1708537768-15xx36667-1202660629-1003
is the same thing as me looking in the Recycle Bin on my Desktop. Both
folders contain the same deleted items.

Each hard disk or partition contains a hidden folder named Recycler. The
Recycler folder is used only on NTFS partitions. On FAT32 the RECYCLED
folder is used. The Recycler folder contains a Recycle Bin for each user
that logs on to the computer, sorted by their security identifier (SID).

Windows allocates one Recycle Bin for each partition or hard disk. If your
hard disk is partitioned, or if you have more than one hard disk in your
computer, you can specify a different size for each Recycle Bin.

%systemdrive%\RECYCLER
With at least one folder with the SID #
for every user on the machine.

If there is only one user, then there is only one
SID # folder. That SID # folder is the Recycle Bin.

Security identifiers (SIDs) are numeric values that identify a user or
group.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In