My Security ID and Emptying Recycler

[Evi]

A folder called Recycler is on my second hard drive. This drive contains
only documents and a few unilities. The OS and MS Office are on my main
drive.
I see from the MS knowledge base that Recycler contains a 'recycle bin' for
each user on the PC. But I'm the only user of the PC now - no log ins or
anything. My own Recycle bin is empty but one of the files in Recycler is
500mb, one is 12mb and one is a few bytes.

How can I tell which one is the real Recycle bin?
Can I get SAFELY delete the other two? If not, what is in the 500mb one?



Evi

 

[Ricardo M. Urbano - W2K/NT4 MVP]

A folder called Recycler is on my second hard drive. This drive contains
only documents and a few unilities. The OS and MS Office are on my main
drive.
I see from the MS knowledge base that Recycler contains a 'recycle bin' for
each user on the PC. But I'm the only user of the PC now - no log ins or
anything. My own Recycle bin is empty but one of the files in Recycler is
500mb, one is 12mb and one is a few bytes.

How can I tell which one is the real Recycle bin?
Can I get SAFELY delete the other two? If not, what is in the 500mb one?

Evi

Evi, there is a Recycler folder for each NTFS volume. Therefore, to
find out what that 500MB file is, open the Recycle Bin on your desktop
and navigate to the drive letter of your "second hard drive". You
should find the file in there, and, if you don't need it, nuke it!

hth

 

[Evi]

Evi, there is a Recycler folder for each NTFS volume. Therefore, to
find out what that 500MB file is, open the Recycle Bin on your desktop
and navigate to the drive letter of your "second hard drive". You
should find the file in there, and, if you don't need it, nuke it!

hth

I think I'm not getting something. I double-clicked on my recycle bin and
used the address bar to navigate to Recycler but it didn't look any
different from when I saw it in windows explorer. You can't see what the
500mb file consists of.

Two were last modified before I got the computer, one has been modified
today (so I guess that must be my current one) and that's the smallest one.

Is it really safe to delete the older 2? One message in the ng said that it
could damage your system to delete these folders. Is this just a groundless
rumour?

My PC has 3 entries in Users and Passwords in Control Panel - Administrator,
My Name (which I added), and Guest. Perhaps they each have one of these
files. Can I delete the other two and make myself the only administrator
and user?

Evi

 

[Ricardo M. Urbano - W2K/NT4 MVP]

I think I'm not getting something. I double-clicked on my recycle bin and
used the address bar to navigate to Recycler but it didn't look any
different from when I saw it in windows explorer. You can't see what the
500mb file consists of.

Two were last modified before I got the computer, one has been modified
today (so I guess that must be my current one) and that's the smallest one.

Is it really safe to delete the older 2? One message in the ng said that it
could damage your system to delete these folders. Is this just a groundless
rumour?

My PC has 3 entries in Users and Passwords in Control Panel - Administrator,
My Name (which I added), and Guest. Perhaps they each have one of these
files. Can I delete the other two and make myself the only administrator
and user?

Evi

OK, you say that the Recycled folder w/ the massive file is on your
second drive. You never mention the drive letter, but let's assume D:
for this discussion. What I am saying is that everything that gets
deleted from D:, goes into the Recycled folder on D:, so you know that
file must have been on D: when it was deleted. You also say that there
aren't that many files in that Recycled folder, so it should be too hard
to find it.

Open the Recycled Bin from your desktop, order the deleted files by
path/original location, then look for the ones on D:. You should see an
entry for that big assed file and it's original location. At that
point, if you know it's not important, blow it away.

 

[Evi]

OK, you say that the Recycled folder w/ the massive file is on your
second drive. You never mention the drive letter, but let's assume D:
for this discussion. What I am saying is that everything that gets
deleted from D:, goes into the Recycled folder on D:, so you know that
file must have been on D: when it was deleted. You also say that there
aren't that many files in that Recycled folder, so it should be too hard
to find it.

Open the Recycled Bin from your desktop, order the deleted files by
path/original location, then look for the ones on D:. You should see an
entry for that big assed file and it's original location. At that
point, if you know it's not important, blow it away.

There are NO files in my Recycled bin on my Desktop.
Evi

 

[Evi]

OK, you say that the Recycled folder w/ the massive file is on your
second drive. You never mention the drive letter, but let's assume D:
for this discussion. What I am saying is that everything that gets
deleted from D:, goes into the Recycled folder on D:, so you know that
file must have been on D: when it was deleted. You also say that there
aren't that many files in that Recycled folder, so it should be too hard
to find it.

Open the Recycled Bin from your desktop, order the deleted files by
path/original location, then look for the ones on D:. You should see an
entry for that big assed file and it's original location. At that
point, if you know it's not important, blow it away.

Both of these folders have names which are just loads of numbers. On is
called
S-1-5-21-1229272821-920026266-1708537768-
(catchy, eh!)
When I try to delete one, I get the message that
'S-1-5-21-1229272821-920026266-1708537768- is a system folder . If you
delete it, Windows or some other program may no longer work correctly.'

If I open each of the folders, I can see nothing inside them in Windows
Explorer in spite of their large size but if I put something into my Desktop
recycle bin, it appears in all 3 folders on D and also in the Recycler
folder in my (main) C drive.

Wierd or what!

Evi

 

[Gary Smith]

Both of these folders have names which are just loads of numbers. On is
called
S-1-5-21-1229272821-920026266-1708537768-
(catchy, eh!)
When I try to delete one, I get the message that
'S-1-5-21-1229272821-920026266-1708537768- is a system folder . If you
delete it, Windows or some other program may no longer work correctly.'

Actually, that's just part of the name. There should be another group of
digits following the seventh dash, like 500 or 1000 or 1001. Each such
folder is the recycle bin for one user on that drive.

If I open each of the folders, I can see nothing inside them in Windows
Explorer in spite of their large size but if I put something into my Desktop
recycle bin, it appears in all 3 folders on D and also in the Recycler
folder in my (main) C drive.

As with some other system golders, Explorer shows you what it thinks you
should see when you open those folders, not what's actually there. Each
should contain at least a file named desktop.ini and another named INFO2.
If you have sent files to the recycle bin, there will be other things in
there as well, but you won't typically recognize their names. If Windows
loses track of what's in there, or if something simply moves files into
that folder without using the recycle bin interface, you can wind up with
files. A file management program that doesn't play Windows "let's
pretend" games can reveal them.

The good news is that all of this doesn't matter if you're not trying to
recover something and you're not too insistent on tracking down how things
got the way they were. It's entirely safe and practical simply to delete
the Recycler folder. Windows will complain, but nothing bad will happen.
The next time you send a file to the recycle bin, it will create a new
folder.

 

[Evi]

Actually, that's just part of the name. There should be another group of
digits following the seventh dash, like 500 or 1000 or 1001. Each such
folder is the recycle bin for one user on that drive.


As with some other system golders, Explorer shows you what it thinks you
should see when you open those folders, not what's actually there. Each
should contain at least a file named desktop.ini and another named INFO2.
If you have sent files to the recycle bin, there will be other things in
there as well, but you won't typically recognize their names. If Windows
loses track of what's in there, or if something simply moves files into
that folder without using the recycle bin interface, you can wind up with
files. A file management program that doesn't play Windows "let's
pretend" games can reveal them.

The good news is that all of this doesn't matter if you're not trying to
recover something and you're not too insistent on tracking down how things
got the way they were. It's entirely safe and practical simply to delete
the Recycler folder. Windows will complain, but nothing bad will happen.
The next time you send a file to the recycle bin, it will create a new
folder.

Thanks very much Gary. I'll give it a go
Evi

 

[Evi]

Actually, that's just part of the name. There should be another group of
digits following the seventh dash, like 500 or 1000 or 1001. Each such
folder is the recycle bin for one user on that drive.


As with some other system golders, Explorer shows you what it thinks you
should see when you open those folders, not what's actually there. Each
should contain at least a file named desktop.ini and another named INFO2.
If you have sent files to the recycle bin, there will be other things in
there as well, but you won't typically recognize their names. If Windows
loses track of what's in there, or if something simply moves files into
that folder without using the recycle bin interface, you can wind up with
files. A file management program that doesn't play Windows "let's
pretend" games can reveal them.

The good news is that all of this doesn't matter if you're not trying to
recover something and you're not too insistent on tracking down how things
got the way they were. It's entirely safe and practical simply to delete
the Recycler folder. Windows will complain, but nothing bad will happen.
The next time you send a file to the recycle bin, it will create a new
folder.

Well, Gary and Riccardo, you were both completely right! I ignored the
gloomy warning by Windows, deleted the two strange folders and the earth
didn't cave in. Everything works just as before, I can delete just as
before and I no longer have my invisible huge files.

Thanks for your patience.
Evi