completely deleting files from removable drives

[Tom H.]

Hello,
I understand that in Windows XP each drive has its own recycle bin. I would
like to empty the recycle bin on just my removable drive while leaving C:
alone. What is the best way to do this? I need to free up space on my thumb
drive, and it appears to be full becuase files I deleted are still held in
recycle. I remember once doing a disk cleanup or something of that sort and
having the option to empty the recycle bin on just that drive, but now I
cannot remember what that operation was.

TIA for any help on this matter.

Tom

 

[JS]

Start Disk Cleanup, select the appropriate drive letter for your removable
drive, Click 'OK', then select the Recycle Bin option and click on the 'OK'
button.

JS

 

[Tom H.]

With the thumb drive, if I start disk cleanup it begins to scan C: and does
not give me a chance to select another drive. I think when this worked for
me before I had an external USB hard drive attached, and I was somehow able
to start disk cleanup on that drive, but I can't figure out how to do it on
the thumb drive.

Tom

 

[JS]

Start/Run/cleanmgr.exe /de

Examples
The /de tells Disk Cleanup to use drive e
/df would be drive f
/dx (where the letter x would be the drive letter for your usb drive)

JS

 

[Michael Walraven]

I think that there is no 'disk cleanup' on a 'device with removable storage'
(thumb drive).
( at least that is how my vista home premium/thumb drive behaves)
Michael

 

[Michael Walraven]

hmmmm,
my thumb drive is FAT formatted so maybe that is why I don't have disk
cleanup.
Michael

 

[Tom H.]

Hi Michael,
Following JS's instructions worked for me on my XP system, and yes, my thumb
drive is FAT formatted.

Thanks for the help JS.


Tom

 

[JS]

You're welcome.

JS

Hi Michael,
Following JS's instructions worked for me on my XP system, and yes, my
thumb drive is FAT formatted.

Thanks for the help JS.


Tom

 

[Tom H.]

For those who may be following this thread, I just noticed something that
explains why I have been able to do this on other drives, but needed the
command line info from JS for my thumb drive. I was just backing up to my
external HD and found that the drive properties window contains a clickable
box just to the right of the disk usage pie chart. That clickable box says
"disk cleanup" and allows one to cleanup that disk and empty its trash.
That *clickable box is missing* from the properties window on the thumb
drive, and that is why I asked my original question here. I had this
recollection of having used disk cleanup on an external drive and emptying
trash before, but I was unable to get back to that place with the thumb
drive. Now I know that it was not just my memory (brain memory that is)
fading on me!!!

Tom