Windows - Can't delete folder from Recycle Bin and it won't restore

06
2014-04
  • Evgeni Sergeev

    Chain of events:

    • Empty Recycle Bin silently fails. Tried it repeatedly.

    • Selected ranges of items in Recycle Bin and deleted them (some didn't work), narrowing down until only one item was left: a folder called Container.

    • Attempting to delete Container, restore it, or Empty Recycle Bin all silently fail: nothing happens, no error message.

    • Logging in as Administrator, that user sees a different recycle bin, that doesn't contain Container.

    How to delete this folder from the Recycle bin without destabilising the system?

    (On Windows Vista.)

    • Answers
  • Evgeni Sergeev

    What worked for me was:

    • Shift + right click Command Prompt and Run as Administrator.

    • cd C:\$Recycle.Bin

    • Now, using dir says "File Not Found", but autocompletion still works, so we can find the names of the directories here by typing, for example dir then pressing Tab repeatedly.

    • Thanks to this answer, rd /s (remove directory recursively) on each of the folders in the C:\$Recycle.Bin. For me, they have names starting with "S" and followed by numbers and hyphens, like "S-1-2-3-1234567-12344-121212".

    • After that, the recycle bin is back to normal and the stuck folder is gone.

    This may be related to a path of a file or folder in the Recycle Bin being longer than some limit. Some alternatives are suggested in this answer: (a) dealing with long file names using UNC \\.\... path notation and (b) using RoboCopy.

    What was also useful is enabling Windows Explorer to show hidden system files and folders, like C:\$Recycle.Bin (may be called different on different systems, such as "Recycler"), by: pressing Alt to show the menu in Windows Explorer, Tools | Folder Options, View tab, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).


    • Related Question

    windows xp - Unable to Empty Recycle Bin
  • Questioner

    The Recycle Bin on one of my XP machines cannot be emptied. The error message is "Error, cannot delete file." Inside the recycle bin are many nested empty folders created by an errant script. Sending the folders to the recycle bin took several hours. And attempting to empty the bin takes a long time and eventually produces the error and causes explorer.exe to consume and not release ram and eventually crash. Deleting c:\recycler then attempting to empty it does not work. I need to know if there a way at a lower level to empty it. My last resort will be a backup(minus the bin) and re-format.


    • Related Answers
  • mrdenny

    Restore the files and folders and then hold the shift key down when deleting them. The folder path is problem to long when the folders are in the recycle bin. Holding down the shift key will delete them directly bypassing the recycle bin.

  • nik
    • Run: cleanmgr /D
    • select drive that has the recycle bin
    • let it scan
    • check only the recycle bin
    • hit OK
  • John Gardeniers

    Start - Run - enter cmd for the command prompt

    On the prompt enter cd\ to go back to the c:> prompt

    Here type rmdir recycler /s confirm and you should be all set

  • Bart Silverstrim

    Are you able to use the deltree command?

    Failing that you could do what was mentioned on this site. Go there and search for the word "robocopy". Hopefully it'll work for you.

  • svandragt

    It sounds like the path is too long due to the nesting. When I encounter this problem on our file server (for nested folders) I start with the top level folder and rename it to "1" (without the quotes). I then try to delete it and if it's a no go I move to the next folder inside the top level folder and do the same thing. I repeat as neccessarry until I'm able to delete it. renaming the folders to "1" essentially shortens the path by however many characters the original folder name was (-1).

  • setatakahashi

    Reboot your computer in safe mode and then try to empty your recycle bin.

  • Bob

    There are so many ways to do for this problem

    Way 1 :

    There are several utilities to solve such problems, I think they are named "unlock" or something like that. (http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/)

    Way 2:

    You might need to run chkdsk on the drive if you haven't done that.

    But you can also try this. Log in under the problem account.

    Open a command prompt: start run, enter cmd

    at the prompt enter:

    rd /s c:\recycler

    confirm the prompt and then reboot.**

    Way 3

    Trying the same in safe mode also is unable to silve the problem. In dos mode also unable to delete the content of c:\recycled*.* . Even cannot delete the c:\recycled.

    Way4 :

    1. Open the Run box and enter: cmd

    2. In the command window, type: attrib -s -h %SystemDrive%\RECYCLER press ENTER, then type: rd /s %SystemDrive%\RECYCLER press ENTER.

    3. Restart your computer.

    4. If you still have problems then download Doug Knox's Recycle Bin registry file:

    5. Double-click it or right-click and merge it into the registry.

    Way 5:

    Several apps have been known to leave a "folder" in My Computer after uninstalling. It is a NameSpace item. Go to REGEDIT.EXE and the CLSID of the icon will be under the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\explorer\mycomp uter\NameSpace\

    Your strange item should be in this area and be obvious. Delete the item when you are sure. It is a good idea to export the ...\NameSpace\ key to a temp.reg file first, in case of errors

    Way 6 :

    To delete items for good open command prompt. than type in

    del c:\users\YOUR USER NAME\desktop\file.*

    where YOUR USER NAME put your username and where file.* is the file and the extension.

  • Unai Vivi

    More often than not it's an NTFS issue: simply MOVE the file on another non-NTFS partition (e.g. FAT32) --you might need Unlocker's help here-- and delete it (don't recycle it, SHIFT+DEL it).