Rather perculiar issue with my recycle bin...

[Gishank]

Right, so recently I noticed a rather odd issue with items I attempt to delete. It seems to occur at random, I'll delete the item and send it to the recycle bin at which point I head to the recycle bin and "Empty" it. This is all well and good but it seems random items (with no apparent link between them) persist in my Recycle Bin but invisible (even with hidden files enabled and the hide protected system files toggled off). This over time built up in to an excess of 28GB of data, which I eventually got rid of by deleting the $Recycle.Bin folder itself (naturally keeping the desktop.ini to avoid screwing it up further). I only noticed this because of my anti-virus scanning these invisible files (which made the scan significantly longer).

It still seems to be occuring however, and as said the files it decides to "keep" are completely random.

I have tried doing the usual, chkdsk, defragging, etc yet it makes no difference. Was wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar issue?

 

[mitchell65]

What files are they, ie what file extensions do they have? If they are hidden in the recycle bin how do you know which files they are? You might also post the file size!

 

[ubuysa]

You're not using Norton security are you? Norton protects the recycle bin which can cause all sorts of issues.

It would be worth temporarily disabling your antivirus and other intrusion security to be sure they're not interfering with the recycle bin operation. I also have the recycle bin excluded from my antivirus scans, there seems little point in scanning files that are effectively deleted.

Do you run the Windows Disk Cleanup tool? It's known to sometimes not empty the recycle bin properly. I use Ccleaner instead.

The official MS method of recovering from recycle bin problems is to delete C:\$Recycle.bin as you have done. They recommend using the remove directory command (rd) to also remove all sub-directories; "rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin" (without quotes of course). The /s switch deletes all sub-directories and the /q switch is for quiet mode (no confirmations)

You've run chkdsk (with the /f option?) but I'd suggest you also run the system file checker; "sfc /scannow" to check and repair essential Windows system files.

 

[Gishank]

As I stated in my original post, there is no link between the files that don't get deleted that I can see. They're of all different types, sizes, permission-sets, and different areas of the directory structure. The program I use is ESET Smart Security, wouldn't touch Norton with a barge pole. I do not use WDC, nor do I use CCleaner as I would much rather know what I am deleting specifically. Yes, I've run the check disk process using the repair flags.

 

[ubuysa]

My first instinct would be to disable your security system to confirm that it's not responsible. I know it's sounds unlikely but it's usually best to start with the obvious.

 

[Gishank]

As this issue has only started occuring recently (and I've had ESET installed for a very long time, none of the settings have been changed), I'm quite certain that it isn't ESET. Not going to disable it and leave a gaping hole open in my system.

 

[ubuysa]

As this issue has only started occuring recently (and I've had ESET installed for a very long time, none of the settings have been changed), I'm quite certain that it isn't ESET. Not going to disable it and leave a gaping hole open in my system.

There won't be a gaping hole unless you're connected to the Internet, and since you don't need to be to check your recycle bin I see no problem. It's your call of course but you did ask for help......