Can't see items in my recycle bin
Sunday, April 24, 2011 by jazzymjr | Discussion: Personal Computing
I just upgraded my desktop, with new motherboard, CPU, SATA HDD and DVD. Installed Windows 7. Everything is fine, but for some reason, when I click on the recycle bin on my desktop and/or in Windows Explorer, it says there are no items in there. But, there are...almost a gig's worth of them. I am at a loss here.
Does anyone know how I can get those files in the recycle bin to show up?
Reply #2 Sunday, April 24, 2011 8:14 AM
Hi jazzymjr. Happy Easter to you. I have to ask, do you have any other hard disks or additional OS's on your machine? I have some possible answers but they depend on your answers to my questions. Moosetek13 might be right, but it's also possible that there is something there.
Reply #3 Sunday, April 24, 2011 10:22 AM
Moosetek13, I installed windows on a brand new HDD. My recycle bin shows as being full, but when I click on it, it says that it is empty. But when I ran the Disk Cleanup tool, it reported 700+ mb worth of files in the recycle bin. I just now deleted a temp file to the recycle bin...still doesn't show up, but the disk cleanup tool shows 702+ mb worth of files in there.
Doc, Windows 7 is my only OS. I have a USB external hard drive that I use for backups; otherwise, the SATA HDD is the only drive on my computer. I want to say that when I first installed Windows on Friday, the recycle bin was working right. But, yesterday and today, it hasn't worked, but I'm not real sure about that.
Reply #4 Sunday, April 24, 2011 10:54 AM
Could be that the new OS/HDD is detecting the ext. HDD? The ext hdd has a different OS?
Take a look here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/cant-see-deleted-files-in-windows-7-recycle/28b20a44-c2d8-4814-a968-2448f5e2755c
Reply #5 Sunday, April 24, 2011 11:16 AM
Doc....you are a lifesaver! All I did was disconnect my external drive, and voila...the files showed up!
I don't have another OS on there...but I do have a file called Windows.old from last year when I originally upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista. Maybe I should delete that file, huh? Especially since I no longer use Vista, and it was set up for my old computer.
Thanks so much!
Reply #6 Sunday, April 24, 2011 11:29 AM
You should be able to delete that Windows.old folder with no issue jazzymjr, just make sure there is nothing in it you still want first. Did it myself here with no issues a couple of times in the past. 
Reply #7 Sunday, April 24, 2011 11:35 AM
Lightstar, I have deleted the Windows.old folder in the past too. I meant to delete it several months ago, and just forgot about it...lol. 
Reply #8 Sunday, April 24, 2011 11:40 AM
Disk Cleanup/ Clean up system files/ 'check them all' click OK.
1. Open a elevated command prompt.
2. In the elevated command prompt, type rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin and press Enter. NOTE: For the other hard drive letters, substitute C: for the other hard drive letter instead. For example: rd /s /q E:\$Recycle.bin
3. Close command prompt window.
4. Right click on a empty area of the desktop and click on Refresh.
Reply #10 Sunday, April 24, 2011 1:41 PM
1. Open a elevated command prompt.
2. In the elevated command prompt, type rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin and press Enter. NOTE: For the other hard drive letters, substitute C: for the other hard drive letter instead. For example: rd /s /q E:\$Recycle.bin
3. Close command prompt window.
4. Right click on a empty area of the desktop and click on Refresh.
Yea, I saw that in the link that Doc posted. I copied the info and printed it out so that when I have the time, I will do that.
Reply #15 Tuesday, April 26, 2011 3:52 PM
Wow.....Docs' getting really good at this stuff. I'll have to start reading his posts so we don't become known as 'Pete' and 'Repeat'.
I believe I have been relieved of duty....
Dear yrag,
I know and fully acknowledge your expertise in all things computer. For years I have sat and watched you solve problems which I didn't even begin to comprehend.
At best, I've tried to get folks to do some basic stuff which would save you wasting your time, and rarely solve one or two problems, while praying devoutly that yrag would show up and save me from having to say, "d'oh I dunno, why don't you pm yrag?".
Sincerely,
doc
*doc still thinks you're a cyborg. 
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
Reply #1 Sunday, April 24, 2011 8:10 AM
They are most likely gone for good.
When you install new files, the old are often overwritten - especially when you do such a radical overhaul.
A good rule of thumb... never delete anything you want to keep.
Just saying...