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How do I get Windows 7 to NOT use the recycling Bin on a removable drive? I've already told Windows to not use the function on that drive but Windows still creates the "Recycling Bin" folder. It stays empty, but I don't want it there at ALL. Simply hiding it won't do. I'm using that removable drive in my car stereo and that "recycled" folder locks up the machine.

Thanks

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I agree that the Recycle Bin being forced on every mounted fixed volume without the option to disable it is bad and poor design. I just (not for the first time) ran into a situation where it is horrible because it causes problems with data-recovery. I lost a bunch of files on a volume, so I stopped using that drive to prevent anything being overwritten, yet stupid Windows went ahead and wrote stuff to the Recycle Bin files, thus overwriting a file, even though I did NOT modify any files on that volume! – Synetech Oct 28 '12 at 20:49

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Recycle Bin is a system directory and gets created anyway. There may be a registry hack, but restoring the OS, or installing a hotfix may reset it - so don't bother.

To avoid seeing the Recycle Bin, do the following:

  1. Hide operating system files in "Folder and search options":

    enter image description here

  2. Make sure deleted files do not get copied to the Recycle Bin (by right-clicking it):

    enter image description here

  3. Hide the Recycle Bin by personalizing the desktop:

    enter image description here

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That's good info but the reason I'm looking for it to NOT be there at all is because when I plug that removable drive into my car stereo, that folder crashes it. I know it sounds funny to say your car stereo crashes, but it doesn't know how to deal with that folder. Your steps above only "hide" that folder. I need for it to not exist at all. But thanks. – JimDel Nov 30 '09 at 0:34
Ok - I assume your device gets shot by the $ in front of the directory name. Try this: before unplugging the removable drive, open a command prompt by right clicking it and selecting run as administrator, then type the following rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin (or whatever the drive you want) and disconnect. If this works, you can roll this into a batch script and add a task that will run upon device disconnect. – Traveling Tech Guy Nov 30 '09 at 1:22
Another thing which may work for you is renaming the recycle bin's folder name to a normal string (no $ or .) - try this tip: computerfreetips.com/window_xp/c_bin_xp.html – Traveling Tech Guy Nov 30 '09 at 1:25
If you follow step 2, then forcibly remove the directory, does it get recreated the next time you insert the disk? – Jason R. Coombs Nov 30 '09 at 4:01
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Yes (too short padding to get to 15 chars :)) – Traveling Tech Guy Nov 30 '09 at 7:09
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up vote 4 down vote

but Windows still creates the "Recycling Bin" folder

That is pretty easy to be avoided:

Delete the folder, open Notepad and save the blank file as $Recycle.Bin in the root directory of the drive in question, now Windows cannot create the folder.

enter image description here

If you want to use the Recycle Bin again on this drive, just delete the file.

enter image description here

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This is not a solution because Windows just re-creates the bin on every drive the moment any operation access it on any drive (e.g., if you delete a file on C:, then Windows creates the bin folder on every volume). This is unacceptable because it makes it effectively impossible to do data-recovery because Windows is writing to the volume for no reason. – Synetech Oct 28 '12 at 20:51
up vote 2 down vote

Mount the drive under a Linux disk like Clonezilla and make a sector-by-sector copy. That way you have a copy to mess with and not the original. I don't think you can stop the default Windows process of creating a hidden Recycle Bin folder in each drive, but many Linux systems (like Puppy Linux) will not touch the drive with a write operation until you tell them to.

EDIT: My bad I was responding to a different post. However, if you boot your Windows machine with a Puppy Linux disk, THEN insert your external drive, you can delete the recycler and move your mp3s to your drive without getting any unwanted files written to the drive. Then you can remove your mp3 drive, remove the Puppy disk, and reboot to Windows without too much hassle. I don't know of any actual way to stop the hidden recycler file from being thrown on the drive, but this would work around it.

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Oops! I was responding to a different post >.< My mistake, you are correct. However, the OP could still use a Puppy Linux disk to move files for his car stereo and avoid having any hidden recycler files written to the drive. – DigitalGalaxy Dec 6 '12 at 23:02
Why don't you edit this to say that? (Would work with modern Linux like Ubuntu/Fedora/Mint too.) – WindowsEscapist Dec 6 '12 at 23:34

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