HELP - Vista Recycle Bin not emptying

Vista Recycle Bin not emptying
The Recycle Bin appears to be functioning correctly, in that the context menu option to 'Empty Recycle Bin' greys out, the icon changes, and even the $RECYCLE.BIN folder (and subfolder 'Recycle Bin') show empty (hidden and operating system files not hidden) with total size around 20K.

However, when running a full Windows Defender scan (with an "empty" Recycle Bin), a large list of files are lsited as being scanned within the Recycle Bin, within a sub-folder (not otherwise shown) corresponding to the HKEY_USERS key 'S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx' (actual key replaced by x's).

When used Explorer to go directly to folder 'C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx' I am taken to 'C:\$Recycle.Bin\recycle Bin'. which is of course empty.

If I manually delete the Recycle Bin a number of folders and files are listed for confirmation to be deleted, which also are not listed within Explorer (or on Recycle Bin properties).

The Recycle Bin is automatically recreated, and the hidden files seem to disappear, but the problem again manifests itself over time.

Why are these file not being deleted by emptying the Recycle Bin, why can I not see them, and how can I delete them routinely?

Hello ch742718,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

Look through this tutorial (and related links) at the link below...

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/131294-recycle-bin-corrupted-cannot-delete-file-folder.html

Keep us informed!


Later Ted

Hi Ted

Thanks for your reply. I had already been through the link your provided, and although I can solve delete and recreate the Recycle Bin, it does not solve the problem as it continually recurs.

It does not explain what is causing the problem, nor why I cannot easily locate the hidden files.

I do not want to have to manually keep checking for hidden 'deleted' files (the Recycle Bin appears empty when it is not), nor to have to continually recreate the bin each time this occurs.

I am looking for a diagnosis and prevention of the cuase, rather than repeated cures.

Thanks

Hi,
The recycle.bin folder includes files deleted by other users, that is recreated each time.
To see what you have in the S-1-5-21..... folders, just add your username with the appropriate rights in the security tab.
Sometimes, a trojan can recreate itself in these folders, so check if nothing runs from the recycle.bin

Hi Sid

Thanks for your reply.

I only have one user (myself, Administrator) on the machine (apart from the Guest account, which is turned off), so I am not sure if this is the cause of the problem.

I have just checked both bins (hard disk has 2 partitions) and nothing currently appears to be hidden there, but I will try your suggestion when the problem, recurs.

I am also fairly sure I am trojan/virus free, as I run frequent scans with numerous products, none of which have discovered anything to date.

Any other suggestions gratefully received.

OK, when you open the properties of the S....... folders, is the size equals to few bytes (desktop.ini) or size is much more higher?

I am not sure if it is the "same" problem I had one time. It happen to be that the Norton Protected Recycle Bin was check marked. After setting it to standard recycle bin I was able to clear the contents again

Hi Sid, Johannes

As to size, currently it is only about 200k, so not a problem; but when the problem does manifest itself it has been a few hundred MB (i.e. deleted files), so definitely an issue.

As to Norton, I am only running NIS, not NSW, so I do not have a Norton Protected Recycle Bin.

ch742718 said:

Hi Sid, Johannes

As to size, currently it is only about 200k, so not a problem;

Click to expand...

That could be a problem!
What do you have int it?

Hi

I have just emptied the Recycle Bin and it appears empty, with the context menu entry being greyed out.

Drive 2: $RECYCLE.BIN as follows:
Size:

Hi

I have just emptied the Recycle Bin and it appears empty, with the context menu entry being greyed out. I have checked both bins and results as follows (less than previously mentioned):

Drive 1: $RECYCLE.BIN (appears to contain only folder 'Recycle Bin')
Size: 129 bytes
Size on disk: 4 KB (4,096 bytes)
Contains: 1 File, 1 Folder

Drive 1:\$RECYCLE.BIN\Recycle Bin (appears empty)
Size: 129 bytes
Size on disk: 4 KB (4,096 bytes)
Contains: 1 File, 0 Folders

Drive 2: $RECYCLE.BIN (appears to contain only folder 'Recycle Bin')
Size: 673 bytes
Size on disk: 8 KB (8,192 bytes)
Contains: 2 Files, 1 Folder

Drive 2:\$RECYCLE.BIN\Recycle Bin (appears empty)
Size: 673 bytes
Size on disk: 8 KB (8,192 bytes)
Contains: 2 Files, 0 Folders

When I allow myself full permissions to the bin on 1st drive, I see no change, nor can I see any files; however when I do this on the 2nd drive, a desktop.ini file appears (and the file count increases by 1).

When I delete and recreate the 1st drive bin, it reappears with above details; when When I delete and recreate the 2nd drive bin, it reappears with the same details as the 1st driive.

Does this help?

[Sorry, please ignore previous incomplete post]

Hi

I have just emptied the Recycle Bin and it appears empty, with the context menu entry being greyed out. I have checked both bins and results as follows (less than previously mentioned):

Drive 1: $RECYCLE.BIN (appears to contain only folder 'Recycle Bin')
Size: 129 bytes
Size on disk: 4 KB (4,096 bytes)
Contains: 1 File, 1 Folder

Drive 1:\$RECYCLE.BIN\Recycle Bin (appears empty)
Size: 129 bytes
Size on disk: 4 KB (4,096 bytes)
Contains: 1 File, 0 Folders

Drive 2: $RECYCLE.BIN (appears to contain only folder 'Recycle Bin')
Size: 673 bytes
Size on disk: 8 KB (8,192 bytes)
Contains: 2 Files, 1 Folder

Drive 2:\$RECYCLE.BIN\Recycle Bin (appears empty)
Size: 673 bytes
Size on disk: 8 KB (8,192 bytes)
Contains: 2 Files, 0 Folders

When I allow myself full permissions to the bin on 1st drive, I see no change, nor can I see any files; however when I do this on the 2nd drive, a desktop.ini file appears (and the file count increases by 1).

When I delete and recreate the 1st drive bin, it reappears with above details; when When I delete and recreate the 2nd drive bin, it reappears with the same details as the 1st driive.

Does this help?

OK, then where are the few hundred megs when the problem occurs?
Do you "see" them somewhere including in the S.......... folders?
BTW all folders in the recycle.bin folder have similar names, just the desktop.ini is different.

OK also for the AV bin, but do you have in your drives any recycled or recycler folders?

Hi Sid

When the problem occurs, I have see the few hundred MB only by checking properties of the Recycle Bin, since the folder appears empty (previously checked only without full permissions). I suspect I may be able to see them (when the problem next occurs) by allowing myself full permissions.

It is only Defender that lists them as being in 'C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx' (which I think is my user's 'C:\$Recycle.Bin\recycle Bin'). I have listed in my previous post the only folders I can currently actually see: 'Drive 1:\$Recycle.Bin\recycle Bin' & 'Drive 2:\$Recycle.Bin\recycle Bin'.

I am not sure what you mean by the "AV bin".

I am guessing that there is a sub-folder called 'S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx' in each drive's "$Recycle.Bin" folder, each with a pseudonum of 'recycle Bin', for each user. When opening the recycle bin, each user would only see their own files, and the context menu would be greyed out as appropriate for their sub-folder only. However as Defender will scan all user's files and list their true paths (i.e. S-15-21-xxxx etc rather than the pseudonym 'recycle bin'), and the total size would appear in $Recycle.bin properties, this would explain the symptoms I am seeing if the spurious files are actually from a different user.

This is worrying since I only have one user on the PC.

OK, then disable automatic scanning and real time protection in defender and see if you can display the properties of the S......... folder. (i disabled Defender a long time ago)
Your hundreds of megs must be in one S......... folder and if you add yourself in the group of users of this folder you should be able to see what you have in it.
In it you should find a lot of other folders like: DC1, DC2, etc.... with old setup files or temp files or whatever.......

Hi Sid

I am not sure how disabling Defender will make any difference, and I have no idea why you feel this may be causing the problem; Defender simply brought to my attention the existence of these files in the first place.

Obviously I cannot do this until the problem manifests itself again but I will try.

ch742718 said:

I am not sure how disabling Defender will make any difference

Click to expand...

Just to avoid defender scanning in folders you may want to modify, especially the bin