Questions tagged [recycle-bin]

The Recycle Bin in Windows is a place for deleted files, from where they can be restored or permanently deleted

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What are the $Recycle.bin folders and their contents on each HDD despite the recycle bin being empty?

What are the $Recycle.bin folders and their contents on each HDD despite the Recycle bin being empty? I can actually Shift+Delete them. What are these, some of them are huge. This is on Windows ...
8 votes
1 answer
483 views

What determines whether the Windows $Recycle.Bin folder is mixed case or all uppercase?

On Windows, the Recycle Bin folder is typically located right under the device root, e.g. F:\$Recycle.Bin or D:\$RECYCLE.BIN. Windows files systems are generally case-insensitive, so in most cases it ...
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

How do I remove the Recycle Bin from the taskbar notification area?

I'm running windows 8, and I suddenly have a recycle bin icon on the right side of the taskbar to the left of the arrow icon in the notification area. How can I get rid of it?
0 votes
0 answers
2k views

Enable Recycle Bin Prompt in Windows 8 via Registry key?

Scenario I'm using Windows 8. By default, the behavior of a file deletion is that it does not confirm the deletion with a Recycle Bin** Prompt, I mean that when the user press the del key, the ...
1 vote
2 answers
238 views

$RECYCLE.BIN Directory appeared recently on my hard drives

I just started seeing a $RECYCLE.BIN directory on all my internal and external hard drives. I had made no changes to folder options on Windows Explorer, in fact not configuration changes recently. It ...
0 votes
1 answer
3k views

Hotkey for Trash (Recycle) for Windows

Keyboard shortcut Win+E is opening Explorer (My Computer) on Windows. Is there a way to run Trash (Recycle) with a shortcut like Win+E, excepting utilities?
3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Multiple folders within $Recycle.Bin

I'm cleaning up a friend's Windows 7 SP1 computer and making sure everything is in order. The $Recycle.Bin folder in the root of C:, has not one, but two, folders inside. The names of those folders ...
47 votes
3 answers
10k views

When data gets deleted from your Recycle Bin, what happens to it?

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but when you "delete" something from your PC all your computer does is write over some of the binary with 0's replacing the 1's. (Or something to that effect) So when ...
2 votes
3 answers
3k views

Deleting a file in Windows 7 skips the recycle bin and is deleted permanantly

When I delete a file, it bypasses the recycle bin and is deleted permanantly. I've made sure the recycle bin's "Don't move files to the recycle bin" option is unchecked and it has a maximum size of ...
1 vote
1 answer
7k views

How to limit access to Recycle Bin?

How can I password protect my Recycle Bin so that no one else besides me can recover the files I've "deleted"?
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

Protect recycle bin from being emptied

I am going away for a few days and although I don't want to prevent my kids from deleting files while I'm gone, I want to prevent them from being able to empty the recycle bin. I want to check what ...
5 votes
1 answer
4k views

Recycle Bin does not work or is corrupt

My Recycle Bin icon is on the Desktop but when opened it has none of the normal Recycle Bin functions (e.g. "Empty Recycle Bin") there is just "Organise". Here is some more info: If I delete ...
1 vote
0 answers
1k views

Users $home folders contain $recycle

This question is very similar to the question asked here but there does not seem to be a final answer and since it is an old post I figured I would start a new discussion with my information to see if ...
2 votes
2 answers
556 views

Virtual Boxes, Linux hosts, Windows guests, Shared folders and Recycle bins

Basically what I am looking for is a way for sharing folders between my Debian Jessie host and Windows 7 guest without the fear that I accidentally delete files under Windows and have no (convenient) ...
2 votes
3 answers
212 views

Recycle bin Windows

I understand that when I empty the recycle bin, the files are still within the computer, and would be accessible by someone with special knowledge. My question is this: the next time that the recycle ...
11 votes
1 answer
8k views

How can I stop $RECYCLE.BIN from being created (or hide it) on network drives/folders?

I have a Windows 7 desktop which has 3 drive mappings to CIFS shares on a FreeBSD home server. There are also special folders (Desktop, etc) stored on the CIFS shares. Each of these (including the ...
1 vote
0 answers
41 views

Can't see files after switching PCs

I was using a separate HDD for most of my storage on a Windows 8.1 PC. I was going away so decided to take the HDD with me. I plugged it in another Windows 7 PC and kept adding more files to it. Now ...
3 votes
2 answers
16k views

The significance of the hidden $RECYCLE.BIN folder of drives in Vista

I notice this directory in both my internal and external HDs that I use in Vista. Is this linked to the Recycle Bin functionality of windows? Will windows still operate properly if I deleted it? ...
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to locate deleted data from recycle bin in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1?

I'm using Windows 7, but I tested Windows 8.1 with the same results. From what I understand deleted files in recycle bin are stored as $R or $I format, however nothing is visible when I search command ...
0 votes
0 answers
96 views

How to disable Windows 7 recycling message

Some months ago, after some Windows patches (I don't know which one caused it), I started getting a recycling pop-up when deleting files. It doesn't happen every single time but it does happen most of ...
1 vote
2 answers
273 views

Windows XP Delete File Option

When I go to delete files in XP, it's deleting them directly. I had my machine recently reimaged, and this feature changed (no longer says are you sure you want to do this). Where does the ...
4 votes
3 answers
11k views

Can't find / open recycle bin in Windows 7

This may sound like a stupid question but I've configured my Desktop to display the Trashcan but I cannot click on it because I've got so many files and folder on my desktop that these flow past the ...
4 votes
1 answer
591 views

Deleting a file from Windows 7 Recycle Bin that causes deletion to hang

This is a WMV file that resulted from a failed operation in some video transcoding software a couple years ago. The resulting file did not ever play correctly in video-playing software. I moved the ...
1 vote
2 answers
10k views

Scheduling The Recycle Bin To Empty Itself?

Quite often I forget or neglect the Recycle Bin and the amount of debris that is disposed within it. Whilst I don't feel it to be critical, I would like to know what options exist that maybe ...
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why are two files reported in RECYCLER when recycle bin is empty?

I have emptied the Recycle Bin. However, when I right-click on the RECYCLER folder on drive C and select Properties, it says "Contains 2 files, 1 folders". I see a folder in there with a random ...
0 votes
2 answers
16k views

Cannot find file and folder $RECYCLE.BIN in windows 7

I have recovered a deleted file Episode2.wmv. In recovery software it was showing it in folder $RECYCLE.BIN\SOME-STRANGE-LONG-FOLDER-NAME\Episode2.wmv. I recovered it on root c:\ but I am unable to ...
0 votes
2 answers
540 views

Recovering files that do not appear in the Recycle Bin, but are in the $Recycle.bin folder on external drive

Problem: I have an NTFS external drive with a $Recycle.bin folder on the root (E:\$Recycle.bin) that has about 70Gb worth of data. For whatever reason, the folder is no longer a hidden system folder, ...
11 votes
2 answers
7k views

User RECYCLER folders have thousands of hidden files

We have a "Users" folder that is the root of all user files and network profiles. Using a directory size utility (WinDirStat), I stumbled upon a strange and worrisome problem - thousands of files ...
2 votes
4 answers
6k views

Why does an external USB HDD have a working Recycle Bin?

I have just purchased a Buffalo MiniStation 500GB, USB 2.0 Portable HDD. I am using it on Windows XP Home SP3. The drive came pre-formatted with FAT32. I notice that when I delete files, it asks me ...
1 vote
0 answers
97 views

Hidden $RECYCLE.BIN folder taking up 30GB in brand new drive [duplicate]

I've just recently acquired a 1TB disk, and installed it on my computer. It barely has any files on it (specifically, only a 3KB password file), but Windows Explorer says it has 35GB in use. As you ...
-2 votes
2 answers
271 views

Can I attach file from the Recycle Bin?

I was giving a lecture to some students, and they asked about why you are unable to attach a file from the Recycle Bin to an email using Gmail, Yahoo!!, Outlook, etc. I am using Windows 7, and try to ...
1 vote
0 answers
81 views

Can Ubuntu Samba Recycle Bin to operate independently of the client windows machine (no settings in them)?

Can Ubuntu Samba Recycle Bin to operate independently of the client windows machine (no settings in them)? Can deleted files restored directly from the Ubuntu Server?
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Limit to number of files in the Recycle Bin?

A couple of weeks ago I was carefully deleting an old backup of my data drive. I did a duplicate-file check between the old backup and the live copy and deleted the old copies to the Recycle Bin. It ...
0 votes
0 answers
2k views

Bypass the $Recycle Bin in CygWin?

I'm using a CygWin session to find a large number of directories at a certain level in the file system tree in a loop, compress each directory into 1 archive, then delete the directory This started ...
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

Unable to find files in Recycle.bin but they show up in Transport Tree and taking space on hard drive

We have a Windows Server 2008 (standard, not R2) where we are rapidly losing disk space on the C drive and don't know what is eating it up. We cleared up the C drive and created over 6GB of space, ...
0 votes
1 answer
113 views

Can I rename my "Recyle Bin" folder in WinXP?

I want to rename my "Recycle Bin" folder on my Windows XP system so that it's like the "Trash Can" of my Ubuntu's. I cannot find a simple "Rename" command on right-clicking. I might have to head ...
0 votes
7 answers
19k views

Empty Recycle Bin error "Cannot Delete Dc12: Access denied."

The Dc number can vary. The error is a sporadic, but when it happens it prevents the contents of the recycle bin from being deleted. It can also occur when the recycle bin appears to be empty, yet it ...
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why is the Windows 8 recycle bin using more space than it is allocated?

I ran WinDirStat to scan the contents of my hard drive. I was surprised to see that the $RECYCLE.BIN folder on my D: drive takes 26 GB of space. I emptied the recycle bin, refreshed the folder in ...
0 votes
0 answers
72 views

All files in Recycle Bin got restored to the desktop on boot; why?

Like the title says. Yesterday I started up my laptop and there it was: the whole desktop, full with old files that I deleted a while ago. This is the second time I've had this problem. The last ...
1 vote
1 answer
5k views

Why does the recycle bin have a size limit? [closed]

What is the reason we can/should limit the size of the recycle bin in Windows? Why not just make it unlimited, and empty it when you feel like it? (I know we can customize the size, but don't see why)....
0 votes
0 answers
190 views

What is the data structure used by Recycle bin & hows it implemented [duplicate]

In a Windows file system, we cannot created a folder or file with the same name. For example, New Folder. If there is a existing folder already named as "New Folder" and if we create another folder ...
2 votes
3 answers
2k views

Network Recycle Bin Tool

Has any ever used the Network Recycle Bin tool? Is that legit? Need to have our network shared drives go into a Recycle Bin. A user has deleted a file from one of our network drives and would like ...
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Use Explorer for deleting files/folders in Total Commander

Putting ExplorerForCopy=1 in the .ini file instructs Total Commander to use Explorer for copying of files, but is there a similar option to make it use Explorer for deleting files and folders? I need ...
3 votes
1 answer
7k views

Is it safe to manually manipulate contents of $RECYCLE.BIN

I was wondering if anybody knows whether it is safe to manually delete or move files found in LETTER:\$RECYCLE.BIN folders? If a file is placed into the recycle bin and then I manually move it from ...
3 votes
2 answers
275 views

How big is the Windows Recycle Bin?

I was deleting old files and folders and got this: So I thought to myself, how big is the Recycle Bin?
0 votes
0 answers
2k views

How to undo more than just one single action in Windows shell?

Is it by any chance possible to undo more than just a single action in Windows? Here's a very simple example of what I mean. I have created following two text files on the Desktop. New Text Document....
2 votes
2 answers
7k views

Batch script move files from Windows Recycle Bin

Is there a way to move files from the Windows Recycle Bin to another folder using a batch script? Background: I have a folder named C:\Temp on my computer. I clear this folder every week using a ...
0 votes
1 answer
53 views

Does a program/tool exists where you can control if the recycle bin appears filled?

I throw a lot of Shortcuts in the recycle bin and I don't want it to appear filled just because some shortcuts which occupy virtually no space on my hard disk. So, is there a program or tool where you ...
0 votes
1 answer
88 views

Recover recycle bin data when deleted data exceeds the bin capacity [closed]

My recycle bin was empty. I deleted the 6 GB of data but when I restoring it I get only 4 Gb. How can I recover the 2 GB ??
1 vote
0 answers
288 views

Why deleting a file in windows re-spin / wake up / power up all the hard drives?

If I delete a file on HD 1, and HD 2 is sleeping (power down), windows spins it up for some reason. I'm using the regular recyle bin. Turning off the recycle bin for all partitions on HD 2 won't help ...