recycle bin problem

on different occassions-not always-the recycle bin icon shows there are files in it. When I open it, I can't see the files, but when I click on empty recycle bin-these files are deleted. This has been going on for 4 days now. I have windows 2000 prof. Can you help me please? Thankyou

 

Do you have Explorer configured to view hidden files? Tools->Folder Options->View. If you don't select "Show hidden files and folders", you won't see them.

 

the option show all was already checked

 

Sometimes the recycle bin will become corrupted. You can try deleting it and then Windows will rebuild it upon reboot.
Open a command prompt window and type or copy paste this command....

rd /s c:\recycled

You should get a confirmation that you are deleting recycled. Reboot your computer and see if the problem is corrected.


Debe

 

Do you have a removable drive, say a USB drive? I see that effect when I remove one of the USB drives and I haven't emptied the trash before removing it.

 

a command prompt ? thanks again

 

Sorry....It's a Dos window.
Go to start>run. Type in cmd. A Dos window will come up. At the C:\ prompt, type in

rd /s c:\recycled

Note the spaces if you are typing and not copy/pasting. Once you have confirmed the deletion, type in exit. Reboot your computer.


Debe

 

Tried the cmd command you suggested for corrupt info file, 4 files still there. I've tryed crap cleaner, reg cleaner, spybot, restoring the registry, Still same result, Please help. At least now I have it where if I delete a file it will delete the ones I put in now but still leaves them 4, before it kept adding before I used all them methods and I got rid of my Norton SystemWorks as well as tryed NukeZilla

 

Try this. Open the recycle bin and record the original location of the files and then restore them. Delete and rebuild the recycle bin as "mtbird" instructed. Go to the location of the files you restored and delete them again and see if the recycle bin will empty now.
T.

 

nothing inside even though it's showing on the outside and when go to delete still 4 there

 

Okay, I'm confused. How do you know there are 4 files in the recycle bin if you can't see anything inside? By chance are you going by the icon on the desktop looking like it has 4 files in a trash can or is there another reason to believe they are there?

 

it shows full and when i try and delete it sya 4 files do i want to delete but never goes away no matter what i do

 

Fixed the probl by doing the weirdest thing I've tryed yet. Went to all my other drives D and my two removeable ones. Found a total of 12 different files between them, now I have a new wierd prob, C recycled and the bin are finally empty but now I have no recycle bin in D or G and H because I deleted them. Do I need them or will life be better without them??? Please respond ASAP thanks for your time and all the help but now I'm not sure if I'm safe but I know 1 thing it's not any OS driven hard drive, just alot of files, I await for your responses or fix if I have to do it,

 

I'm not sure what you mean "I have no recycle bin in D or G and H". The recycle bin normally appears on the desktop.

If you delete a file on one of those drives, does it still show up in the recycle bin? If you right click the desktop recycle bin and select properties, do you get a display similar to this one with tabs for each drive?

 

Shouldn't be a big problem at the moment not having them. You don't actually have to use the recycle bin, it's just there to make it easy to recover files that you delete by mistake. Just make sure you don't send anything to the recycle bin unless you are sure you don't want it until you get this straightened out.

You said you got rid of Norton Systemworks. One of the features of that is Norton File Protection. I think you can use it to configure each drive seperatly and give each drive it's own protected file and recycle bin. I'm wondering if you uninstalled it completely as that is tied into the recycle bin and could be causing some of this.

Also be sure to respond completely to JohnWill's post as the info is needed to help with your problem.

T.