windows 7 - Some files not appearing in recycle bin

06
2014-04
  • GeoffSchultz

    Today I had something very strange happen. I have an Access database which is split into the UI in one file and the data in the other. I had a new version of the UI, so as usual I selected the old UI and pressed Delete. All of the files in the directory, other than a "thumbs.db" file disappeared! I thought that maybe I fat-fingered it and selected all of the files, so I went to the recycle bin and the only file (from today) that was in there was the file that I had selected to delete. None of the other files were there.

    I spent quite some time searching for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I had a backup of the database data file that was a day old, so I was able to restore it and will be able to go back and recreate the lost data from hardcopies of the transactions, so that's good.

    However, I am very concerned as to what happened. I've never seen this happen in many years of Windows usage. I'm running Windows 7 and this occurred on the C drive of a system that is only 20% full. The UI and the data file are < 4 MB each. Does anyone have any ideas to what could have occurred?

    • Answers
  • Mud

    Does your recycle bin clear itself daily? If you're on a box at work, you may be lucky enough to have "previous versions" feature enabled.

    Check by right clicking the folder the file was in before you moved it to the recycle bin and look at the tabs for 'Previous Version', if it's there click into it to see a history of backups of that folder.

    If not - you may be out of luck. If it was particularly important to know what happened it you could always check the event manager, I'm pretty sure it logs file removals or at least recycle bin operations - especially if it's a scheduled task.


    • Related Question

    windows xp - Drive appears twice, Recycle bin empties itself
  • Michael Borgwardt

    On my Windows XP desktop system, I have the problem that the recycle bin empties itself whenever I open it, i.e. recently deleted items are visible for a second, with each file appearing twice, then they disappear (and this happens only once). Occasionally I'd like to undelete stuff rather than dig out the backups, so it's quite annoying.

    This started when I added a second HD, separating the Windows and data partitions onto separate HDs. I did that via a Linux boot CD and the dd tool, and had some problem getting the boot loader to work, but eventually I had what I wanted, except that the data partition E: (now filling the entire second HD) showed up twice in "My Computer", with two different drive letters E: and P: leading to the same file system, and the problem with the recycle bin (which applies only to deleted files from that partition, not C:).

    I managed to remove the P: drive letter in the disk manager, but it's still accessible if I enter P: as address in an explorer window and the recycle bin properties show separate configurations for E: and P: - interestingly, the P: drive is not present when I start in safe mode.

    The recycle bin problem persists.

    Any advice other than reinstalling Windows?


    • Related Answers
  • moobaa

    Right-click Recycle Bin -> Properties.

    Is the "Space Available" for each of your drives sensible (ie, greater than 0)? If not, change it :)

    (And maybe check whether the "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin" item is selected)

    Be aware that those settings must be applied for each drive.

  • kinokijuf

    The folder for the recycle bin could have been damaged.

    If you delete the Recycle Bin folder and then restart Windows, the folder will be re-created and restore its functionality. Restart Windows and press F8 at the Windows Startup menu, and then select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

    Navigate to the correct drive prompt (normally C: and cd C:\). Then type these two commands, pressing Enter after each line:

    attrib -s -h recycler
rd /s recycler

    Then restart Windows normally and see if the recycle bin works.