[jdl]

Go to Kelly's Korner here and scroll down to "Recycle Bin - Repair or Replace" then click on the link just below that bold heading reading "Replace/Repair the Recycle Bin." That link will take you to Doug Knox' site and a repair script. (You could go directly there but there's no explanation there as to what the script does...here's the direct link.

Select Edit-->Select All and and then click Edit-->Copy. Paste the copy into Notepad and save it to your desktop. Rename the file extension from .txt to .reg. Double click the file and answer the prompt. It will rebuild/replace the recycle bin. You may then delete the .reg file from your desktop.

Let us know if this clears your problem...it may help others in the future.

[michaeltee]

I appreciate the suggestion. No problem running the script however after rebooting I emptied the recycle bin and no improvement. Same symptoms as before.

[tdfmofo]

I had the same problem today (5-22-06)

Restart in safe mode/admin

empty recycle bin

restart into windows normally

Problem solved.

................or atleast it was in my case

Hope that helped

MoFo

p.s. I also disabled "system restore" on all drives while in safe mode.

[michaeltee]

Originally Posted by tdfmofo

I had the same problem today (5-22-06)

Restart in safe mode/admin

empty recycle bin

restart into windows normally

Problem solved.

................or atleast it was in my case

Hope that helped

MoFo

p.s. I also disabled "system restore" on all drives while in safe mode.

I followed your procedure but it didn't help. I appreciate your suggestion just the same :-)

[anubhavbajpai]

Hi Michaeltee,

You may also try this last step. Hope this is very simple and should be working for you as of now.

Create a new text file on the desktop. Delete it and send it to Recycle Bin. Open Recycle Bin. Click "Empty Recycle Bin". Your job is done.

[wrinklysteve]

Originally Posted by anubhavbajpai

Hi Michaeltee,

You may also try this last step. Hope this is very simple and should be working for you as of now.

Create a new text file on the desktop. Delete it and send it to Recycle Bin. Open Recycle Bin. Click "Empty Recycle Bin". Your job is done.

I had a problem today very similar to the above - I deleted large video files and presumably overloaded the recycle bin - couldn't see contents and got the 'delete windows?' message. The last suggestion from anubhavbajpai worked a treat. Thanks for that.

[bretzin]

Originally Posted by wrinklysteve

I had a problem today very similar to the above - I deleted large video files and presumably overloaded the recycle bin - couldn't see contents and got the 'delete windows?' message. The last suggestion from anubhavbajpai worked a treat. Thanks for that.

Worked a treat for me too, but not by 'empty recycle bin'.

I started by finding the invisible 'windows' file in the recycle bin.
Then followed anuhavbajpai's suggestion of creating then deleting a text file.
I called it HELLO.
Then I double-clicked on and OPENED the recycle bin.
Being a bit too much of a coward to agreeing to possibly deleting the invisible windows file by emptying the recycle bin altogether, I simply deleted the text file called HELLO in there.

Once that was deleted, I closed the recycle bin and it looked empty.

Weird thing is, that I then OPENED the empty recycle bin again (to check for sure lol)
and the option to Empty Recycle Bin was still in bold. So I clicked on that and it said
"are you sure you want to delete the file called HELLO" (which I'd already done and which was no longer showing). I deleted the now invisible 'HELLO' text file as it asked.

OPENED recycle bin yet again and this time 'Empty Recycle Bin' is greyed out and so its definitely empty.

I'm describing in detail in case any of the tech-minded people can work out why it happens from the way the invisible windows file then somehow turned into the deleted text file called Hello?

Thanks to anubhavbajpai for his help

[lotuseclat79]

Hi bretzin,

Welcome to TSG!

When a file is deleted, it is not physically removed. Only the link to the file on disk in the folder/directory is removed, and then where the link pointed to on disk is freed up and considered as available to use for other files.

If you use a file shredder program to remove the file instead of sending the file to the Recycle Bin via deleting it, a pattern is copied over the space used by the file on disks - about 7 copies of some random or user selectable '0' sequence.

WRT to Recycle Bin, since it can restore the file if requested to do so, it will either copy the file into its own space until it is removed from the Recycle Bin, or it may just remove the link from the folder/directory, and save it in-place, but to restore it to the same location on disk would require an interface between the Recycle Bin and the OS file allocation software (which is unlikely). If some time has passed while the file has not been removed from the Recycle Bin, then the space formerly occupied by the file is almost certainly being used by some other file by that time, and consequently, one should expect the location on disk to have changed when the file is restored from the Recycle Bin, otherwise, the Recycle Bin may report that the file cannot be restored (if its design requires the file to be restored to the same place on disk - a detail that I am admittedly a bit foggy about).

In short, the file is "invisible" because the physical link to it in the folder has been deleted. And as you noticed, you found the "invisible" file in the Recycle Bin. Why it was required to go through the nonsense of creating another file and deleting it in order to delete the original file from the Recycle Bin (if I understand your dilema correctly?), I do not know.

-- Tom

[MarkyMarc]

Right clicked on the recycle bin, chose global, moved the slider to zero (0% of the bin is dedicated to trash), hit ok.

Voila - bin empty - no windows file.

Move the slider back to wherever it was.

[bblanchard]

I was having the same problem I found that method #1 of the following link worked for me.
http://www.5starsupport.com/xp-faq/1-24.htm

[Craftycolt]

Hello, I have the same problem. I recently reinstalled xp (fresh copy) and started disabling some of the unnecessary services that come with win xp sp2. But, the problem wasn't evident instantly. It was only after a few days of internet use.

Maybe, the problem is a combination of certain services not running and internet explorer and/or tcpip issues. Someone please brainstorm this to take this mystery further. It's just a hunch (I didn't say this on the premise of computer knowledge, more through observational analysis)

thanks, Aneesh

[Methiah]

I sometimes get this problem, turned out it was related to my anti-virus software (Symantec Corp) and some false positive files I had deleted. After disabling auto-protect the invisible windows folder turned back into the suspect files and they could be removed as normal.

[jdl]

Just a small question. How did this 2006 thread get back in the forefront of the forums? PUT IT TO BED!!

[lotuseclat79]

Hi jdl,

It is not the age of the thread that matters, but the currency of the problem. Knowing how another member contributes to solving the problem in another way is of value to anyone who takes the time to search for a thread about the same problem they are having.

Even though Methiah is a new member here at TSG, Methiah's take on the problem is new to the thread and therefore contributes a valuable service when other's find that information and can achieve the same result as Methiah using that information.

-- Tom

[Craftycolt]

Here's something else I's say. I've got both Win98se and Xpsp2 installed on my system. Sometimes, I delete files while using 98 and forget to empty the recycle bin. When I log on to windows, the same files appear on the xp recycle bin.

Sometimes, when I try to empty the recycle bin, it prompts me to delete some 15 non-existent files from the bin. By the way, I had this problem in 98 from a very long time. The only difference between xp and 98 is that 98 doesn't ask you to delete windows.

I'm pretty sure this happens because of starting xp with some services disabled.