Recycle bin has phantom files I cannot delete or view

[Guest]

My recycle bin icon shows items there are items in it.
If I right click and emptythe bin, it confirms I would like to delete 68
items. Clicked yes and it does not empty.
No items are visible if I open the recycle bin.

Have deleted an item then right clicked the recycle bin and emptied,
followed by a reboot to no avail.

Have tried:
Go to Start/Run and type in CMD:
Type CD \RECYCLED, and then press ENTER.
Responds "This system cannot find the path specified."

Have also tried:
Click Start, Run and enter %systemdrive%\Recycler
No sub-folders are visible.


Any ideas?

 

[Kelly]

Hi Todd,

When exactly did this behavior begin?

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Installed Norton System Works perhaps? Protected Bin will do this.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

I'm experiencing exactly the same problem, except the error message I get is
"Cannot remove folder XXX: The directory is not empty". In Explorer the
recycle bin appears empty, however if I look in Recycler, within a folder
named S-1-5-21-.......... (a long numerical name) there are masses of
subfolders named like Dd145, Dd146... and so on, each containing a selection
of .exe, .dll, .sys and other files, all named A0001234, A0001235... etc.

If I try to delete or move this folder, I get a different error message
saying "Cannot delete S-1-5-21-.....: It is being used by another person or
program". Even booting into safe mode with the command prompt I cannot
delete this file or any of its contents, I just get an "Access denied"
message.

These phantom files seem to be occupying over 500Mb of disk space, so if
anyone has any idea how to get rid of them, or even what they are, I'd
appreciate it.

 

[Guest]

Noticed it over the past few days. Might have been present a week or two ago
but didn't think much about it at the time.
Two days ago I had an error while logging on to windows. It said the account
was damaged, or something similiar, but after rebooting was able to logon
normally.

 

[Guest]

Do not have any Norton programs installed.

Installed Norton System Works perhaps? Protected Bin will do this.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

Also, had to perform a system restore yesterday.
The "My Documents" folder was not visible in explorer, even though I could
access it through the start menu.
"My Documents" folder was restored successfully.

 

[Guest]

Found a problem with adobe acrobat files, so I uninstalled it. After it was
reinstalled, the recycle bin problem was corrected.

 

[Kelly]

How interesting. Thanks for the feedback, Todd.

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com