Recycle bin problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin
  • Start date Start date
M

Martin

I'm having some problems with the recycle bin. It has the "full" icon
but there are no files in it. However, clicking on Empty Recycle Bin
brings up a box asking me if I want to delete the 13 items in it. Even
if I select Yes the same box appears again and again. If I make hidden
and protected OS files visible there is still nothing in it.

Also, Windows is set up to move files to the recycle bin when they are
deleted. But, when I delete a file it is completely removed and doesn't
go to the recycle bin.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
 
Try this. In Windows Explorer go to a folder that has many files in it.
Highlight many of them, then rightclick your selection and choose Copy. Now
rightclick anywhere on the whitespace and choose Paste. All of the copies
should already be highlighted. Press Delete key and send to Recycle Bin.
This may force it to start working again.
 
jopa66 said:
Try this. In Windows Explorer go to a folder that has many files in it.
Highlight many of them, then rightclick your selection and choose Copy. Now
rightclick anywhere on the whitespace and choose Paste. All of the copies
should already be highlighted. Press Delete key and send to Recycle Bin.
This may force it to start working again.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this didn't work either. It's not a major problem as I'm
sure I can live without the recycle bin but I'd like to get it fixed.
 
I'm having some problems with the recycle bin. It has the "full" icon
but there are no files in it. However, clicking on Empty Recycle Bin
brings up a box asking me if I want to delete the 13 items in it. Even
if I select Yes the same box appears again and again. If I make hidden
and protected OS files visible there is still nothing in it.

Also, Windows is set up to move files to the recycle bin when they are
deleted. But, when I delete a file it is completely removed and doesn't
go to the recycle bin.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
Click to expand...

How many hard drives do you have and what file system(s) do they use?

Assuming you're using NTFS you could do the following procedure to nuke
your recycle bin and force it to start fresh but you'll lose any pretty
icons you might see associated with them in Explorer. IOW, the Recycler
folder will look just like any other folder. I doubt it will work if you
have any sort of Norton Recycle Bin Protected Files Doodah Doodah
installed however. (Standard disclaimers apply - if your computer melts,
your cat explodes, etc. don't blame me. I've done this before and it
worked for me.)

1. Open a command prompt window first.
2. Open taskmanager and end the explorer process. The taskbar should
vanish.
3. In the command prompt type:
rmdir /s c:\recycler
where c: is the drive and press <enter>. If it prompts you, answer yes to
deleting the folder or files. Repeat this for all your hard drives, if
you have more than one.
4. When finished type:
explorer
and press <enter>. You should get back your taskbar.

Try deleting some files and see if the desktop Recycle Bin icon works as
expected.
 
Michael said:
How many hard drives do you have and what file system(s) do they use?

Assuming you're using NTFS you could do the following procedure to nuke
your recycle bin and force it to start fresh but you'll lose any pretty
icons you might see associated with them in Explorer. IOW, the Recycler
folder will look just like any other folder. I doubt it will work if you
have any sort of Norton Recycle Bin Protected Files Doodah Doodah
installed however. (Standard disclaimers apply - if your computer melts,
your cat explodes, etc. don't blame me. I've done this before and it
worked for me.)

1. Open a command prompt window first.
2. Open taskmanager and end the explorer process. The taskbar should
vanish.
3. In the command prompt type:
rmdir /s c:\recycler
where c: is the drive and press <enter>. If it prompts you, answer yes to
deleting the folder or files. Repeat this for all your hard drives, if
you have more than one.
4. When finished type:
explorer
and press <enter>. You should get back your taskbar.

Try deleting some files and see if the desktop Recycle Bin icon works as
expected.
Click to expand...

Thanks Michael, your solution fixed it.

Martin
 
Michael Cecil said:
How many hard drives do you have and what file system(s) do they use?

Assuming you're using NTFS you could do the following procedure to nuke
your recycle bin and force it to start fresh but you'll lose any pretty
icons you might see associated with them in Explorer. IOW, the Recycler
folder will look just like any other folder. I doubt it will work if you
have any sort of Norton Recycle Bin Protected Files Doodah Doodah
installed however. (Standard disclaimers apply - if your computer melts,
your cat explodes, etc. don't blame me. I've done this before and it
worked for me.)

1. Open a command prompt window first.
2. Open taskmanager and end the explorer process. The taskbar should
vanish.
3. In the command prompt type:
rmdir /s c:\recycler
where c: is the drive and press <enter>. If it prompts you, answer yes to
deleting the folder or files. Repeat this for all your hard drives, if
you have more than one.
4. When finished type:
explorer
and press <enter>. You should get back your taskbar.

Try deleting some files and see if the desktop Recycle Bin icon works as
expected.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much! I just tried this and it worked perfectly. I didn't
even lose my recycler icons in explorer. Everything is back to normal and I
no longer have files in my recycler that won't go away even though I don't
see anything in there!
 
Your suggestion worked for me, but only until I started up the PC the next
day. I have to go through the process after each startup.

Any ideas why?
 
I tried this out and the recycle bin is cleared. However, whatever I delete
doesn't appear in the bin and I do not see the "Empty Recycle Bin" or
"Restore all files" buttons in the window.
 
Thank you so much! I have been searching the internet (in vain) for the last
few hours about how to fix this exact problem. I even tried all the
suggestions listed in the beginning of this dialogue. This fixed my problem
very easily!

Amanda
 
Michael

Many thanks - it has worked so far for me - though I haven't rebooted yet.

Note that I could not get it to work unless I started with ONLY Explorer (ie
the desktop) going, and a hint for getting the Task manager is
Control/Alt/Del simultaneously.

Rick H
 
Thankyou for your fix it worked straight away and I have been searching for
an answer for a few days, until I found this site. It is the first time for
me and I will be using this site in the future if I have any more problems.
Thanks again for your quick fix.
 
worked for me too. Thank you.

Michael Cecil said:
How many hard drives do you have and what file system(s) do they use?

Assuming you're using NTFS you could do the following procedure to nuke
your recycle bin and force it to start fresh but you'll lose any pretty
icons you might see associated with them in Explorer. IOW, the Recycler
folder will look just like any other folder. I doubt it will work if you
have any sort of Norton Recycle Bin Protected Files Doodah Doodah
installed however. (Standard disclaimers apply - if your computer melts,
your cat explodes, etc. don't blame me. I've done this before and it
worked for me.)

1. Open a command prompt window first.
2. Open taskmanager and end the explorer process. The taskbar should
vanish.
3. In the command prompt type:
rmdir /s c:\recycler
where c: is the drive and press <enter>. If it prompts you, answer yes to
deleting the folder or files. Repeat this for all your hard drives, if
you have more than one.
4. When finished type:
explorer
and press <enter>. You should get back your taskbar.

Try deleting some files and see if the desktop Recycle Bin icon works as
expected.
Click to expand...
 
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