Problems with the Recycle Bin and others

[Pilgrim]

I recently did a clean install of W2k for a neighbor. The first thing I did
was to grab all the Critical and Security updates and then installed her
programs. Everything is working great except for a couple of items:

1. When emptying the Recycle Bin the system "stalls" (busy cursor) for about
15 seconds and then resumes, but the action is not done, i.e., the Recycle
Bin isn't emptied. If I reboot and then empty the Recycle Bin, it works
fine.

2. Similarly, if I plug in my SanDisk USB key drive, use it for a bit and
then click on the "Safely remove hardware" icon in the Notification Tray,
the system shows as being busy and after about 15 seconds the notification
it is okay to remove the drive shows, but the mouseover message for the
"Safely remove hardware" icon doesn't disappear.

3. Installed Diskeeper Pro 10 and when I ran a manual Defrag I got the
following message 3 times during the process: "Failed to create the
immediate context file". Clicking "OK", the defragmentation resumed.
Couldn't find anything using Google on this.

Any help with any/all of the above 3 issues would be greatly appreciated.
This is my first experience with W2k SP-4.

THANKS!

 

[Gary Smith]

The cause of problem #1 may be that the Recycle Bin has become corrupted.
Try deleting the entire folder to see if that clears it up. Windows will
create a new folder when it's next needed.

You can delete the folder from within Windows Explorer if you have the
system set to display hidden and system files and folders. (I recommend
that everyone do that on every system they use.) The folder used for the
Recycle Bin is named RECYCLER on an NTFS drive and RECYCLED on a FAT
drive. To delete it from Explorer, simply select it and hold down the
Shift key while clicking on the Delete button or pressing the Delete key.
You'll most likely get a couple of comfirmation prompts. Click Yes until
it's convinced you mean it, and you're done.

I recently did a clean install of W2k for a neighbor. The first thing I did
was to grab all the Critical and Security updates and then installed her
programs. Everything is working great except for a couple of items:

1. When emptying the Recycle Bin the system "stalls" (busy cursor) for about
15 seconds and then resumes, but the action is not done, i.e., the Recycle
Bin isn't emptied. If I reboot and then empty the Recycle Bin, it works
fine.