Vista - Recycle Bin Corrupted - Cannot Delete File or Folder

Your welcome JJ. Thank you for letting me know about unchecking that option instead of checking it in the step. It was a oversight and has been corrected now.

Thank you,
Shawn

Hi. According to Dell, who want to charge me $50+ to fix the problem, I have a corrupted recycle bin in Vista Home Premium x32. I noticed this about 2-3 weeks ago, after I installed a new harddrive to my system about 2 months ago.

What happens is that a file is deleted and the recycle bin icon shows data in the RB. However, when I open the RB, there is nothing in there. I can't restore the items, but I can permanently delete them, even though I can't see them.

I've tried the two option listed above by the admin. Option 1 doesn't remove the recycle bin from the desktop. I can't access the hidden folders and files in Option 2 no matter what I try to do. I've also checked multiple times to be sure that the files are not being permanently deleted outside of the RB.

I have no idea what to do now, and I really, really, don't want to pay Dell the money to attempt to fix it, unless it's the last resort. Any other suggestions?

Hello Monkee017, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Did you repeat this for each hard drive letter that you had installed, then restarted the computer afterwards?

Yes I did. My main drive is the C drive, which I did the command prompt for. When I tried the command prompt for the D partition, I got a response in the command prompt saying that the item didn't exist. I then restarted the computer, with the same recycle bin problems happening once it was restarted.

I'm hoping it's not a problem with the operating system, as I've had the OS installed twice on the new harddrive.

When you tried Method Two, where you not able to see the $RECYCLE.BIN file after doing step 1?

You might also run a sfc /scannow command to see if it can find and fix any bad system files that may also be part of this problem.

That's right. When I made the system files unhidden, I couldn't find the $Recycle.bin file in the C:\. I tried refreshing the "folder" and closing it and then opening the "folder" again. Still, $Recycle.bin was nowhere to be found.

I'll try the scan option and see if anything pops up.

UPDATE:
Well, after running the system scan as suggested, it appears there was nothing picked up, or out, by the scan. Perhaps I'm imagining the recycle bin issue?

Monkee017,

Well, if you did Method One first without restarting, then you will not see the $RECYCLE.BIN file in Method Two since it was deleted. In Method Two you would have to dot Show hidden files and folders and uncheck Hide protected operating system files to be able to see the $RECYCLE.BIN file. Just doing one of them will not work. After you delete the $RECYCLE.BIN file, it will only be restored after restarting the computer.

You might also do this tutorial afterwards to make sure that you are not also experiencing a refreshing issue with the RB.

Recycle Bin

Is the recycle bin working properly now?

Thanks for following this with me so far...

I dot and unchecked again, since I had reset the defaults earlier, and found the $Recycle.bin file. (Finally! I must have forgot to dot earlier!) When I delete the RB file, I can refresh and the file shows back up immediately on C:\. Is it supposed to do that, or is it supposed to wait until I restart? (Which, by the way, I haven't done yet.) And, even though I deleted and refreshed the RB file, I still have the same problems with the recycle bin. Oh, I also checked the refreshing RB by using the link you provided, as a double-check. Still no difference.

Although I did notice that if I have the recycle bin window visible, and if I delete something to it, the items show in the recycle bin, everything's A-ok. But, if I delete something and close the RB window, the files don't show anymore. Neither do they show if I see them appear in the opened RB window and then close and reopen the window. They disappear, and the counter in the bottom left of the RB window resets to 0.

Here's to hoping!

Yes, you will need to restart the computer right after deleting the $Recycle.bin file to completely reset it.

Well, after restarting, same problem still exists. Would it be fixed if I reinstalled the OS again, or would that just compound the error? Or should that be the very last plan of attack?