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Due to a problem while zipping a large file I ended up with around half a million tiny files in my recycle bin. When I try to empty the bin the computer crashes after a while and after alerting me that it has not enough RAM.

I've tried several methods of emptying the bin, to no avail. I tried the following approaches:

  1. used tools like CCleaner, NirCMD and others;
  2. ran CMD as admin and tried rd /s /q C:*recycl* > nul which only lead to Windows telling me that the syntax would be incorrect;
  3. tried rd /s /q C:\$RECYCLE.BIN which leads to Windows telling me that it can't find it;
  4. selected show hidden objects in the Explorer since I wanted to delete the Recycle Bin there but I can't find it on any of my three drives.

I'm using Windows 10 64-bit by the way. Any help would be much appreciated!

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  • 3
    Try just changing the allowed size of the recycle bin that should avoid having to actually try emptying the bin.
    – Ramhound
    Feb 11, 2016 at 16:28
  • He will need to empty the recycle bin eventually...
    – Burgi
    Feb 11, 2016 at 16:40
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    @Burgi - The idea is that the system would reduce the size of the current recycle bin, allowing him to empty it, its a worth a try
    – Ramhound
    Feb 11, 2016 at 16:42
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    I know this might seem like an obvious thing but have you tried deleting the files in smaller batches?
    – Burgi
    Feb 12, 2016 at 8:51
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    When you run RmDir /S "C:\RECYCLER" it first loads the entire bin into RAM and then it crashes. So it never gets around to deleting it. I have around 30million json files in my recycle bin totaling to 55gb. The life of a data scientist Mar 18, 2018 at 4:11

2 Answers 2

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You need to run "rd /s /q C:\$RECYCLE.BIN" in a command prompt not the Powershell.

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Just run Disk Cleanup (it's under drive properties). Check the Recycle Bin option even if it says 0 bytes and you'll have it empty in seconds.

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