SOLVED Recycle Bin Files are hidden

[cooperslay]

I cannot SEE any files in any Recycle Bin and therefore cannot select which deleted files to restore or delete permanently. Using Folder Options/View, the "Show Hidden Files, Folders and Drives" is checked. The "Hide Protected Operating System Files" is unchecked.

Using "Properties" on the Recycle Bin on each hard drive folder shows varying numbers of files and MB/GB in each. Deleting a file on a drive will show up on Properties as an increase in the number of files and total size. Also, on Properties, under General/Attributes shows "Hidden" checked but greyed-out.

And, if I use Control Panel and select "Administrative Tools/Free Up Disc Space" it shows the file sizes occupied by files in the Recycle Bin for each hard drive.

THESE LATTER TWO THINGS PROVE THAT THERE ARE INDEED FILES IN THE RECYCLE BINS OF EACH HARD DRIVE BUT THEY ARE INVISIBLE (HIDDEN). The files are not greyed out. Nothing shows when I open the recycle binsl

HOW CAN I MAKE THE FILES IN THE RECYCLE BINS BE VISIBLE?

 

[davidhk129]

Try this.......

Start button > in the search box, type cmd ( DO NOT press Enter key )> top left, RIGHT click at cmd.exe > select Run As Administrator > at the flashing prompt, copy/paste this command.......
rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin

press Enter.

Now try to delete something and see if it shows up in recycle bin.

 

[TrainableMan]

Woah! If the OP only cares about trying to resolve the problem that files can't be seen, then sure they can try that. But David, I think you should make it clear everything currently in the Recycle Bin will be wiped out. It's sounds to me like they may actually be trying to restore something they have deleted and if they do what you suggest then it will be gone!

 

[cooperslay]

Try this.......

Start button > in the search box, type cmd ( DO NOT press Enter key )> top left, RIGHT click at cmd.exe > select Run As Administrator > at the flashing prompt, copy/paste this command.......
rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin

press Enter.

Now try to delete something and see if it shows up in recycle bin.

 

[cooperslay]

Thanks David. I did that and it removed the recycle bin from Drive C: I then deleted some files from C: and,of course, the recycle bin reappeared, but the files are still invisible. By using Properties, I can see that the deleted files are there but they can't be seen.

Out of curiosity: One can also delete the recycle bin by (1) moving selection to it in Windows Explorer and clicking, from top menu bar, Empty Recycle Bin (which does work because the deleted files disappear from Properties) and then hitting Delete key while Recycle Bin is selected.

So, my question is: Is there any advantage ... any better cleaning job or anything ... if one uses the command line?

Incidentally, I have read on other threads where your method has worked for people ... but not for me.

Thanks again. If you have other suggestions, I will try anything.

PS: I think (not sure but think) that this problem started when I had deleted a LOT of files from a drive. When I attempted to access the recycle bin after doing so, the "busy" icon showed for a very long time ... so long that I thought that the computer was frozen up and so I turned it off. This was repeated several times until I finally was able to use the "Empty Recycle bin" button. Since then, all deleted files from all drives have been invisible.

 

[cooperslay]

Woah! If the OP only cares about trying to resolve the problem that files can't be seen, then sure they can try that. But David, I think you should make it clear everything currently in the Recycle Bin will be wiped out. It's sounds to me like they may actually be trying to restore something they have deleted and if they do what you suggest then it will be gone!

 

[cooperslay]

Thanks very much for your concern, Trainable Man. You are, of course, correct. In the beginning, I WAS anxious to save the deleted files long enough to look at them and see whether I wanted to recover any. Since then I have just been concerned about the FUTURE and am desperate to get to be able to SEE the deleted files. I don't want to live my life without that ability! So, I have used the "Empty Recycle Bin" button on all of my hard drives, just trying to get NEWLY deleted files to be visible.

I spent a bunch of time with Microsoft Wiindows tech support and he immediately guessed that it was a virus (which I do not believe) and started to try to sell me their virus removal service $99 one time or $149 for ??ever??.
I think that there is a switch that has been flipped to hide files in the Recycle Bin but not any other files. I tried searching the Registry (RegEdit) for "Recycle Bin" but could not find anything that looked like a "0" or "1" switch.

 

[cooperslay]

A MIRACLE!!

I just unplugged all of my external hard drives and now suddenly, the deleted files in the Recycle Bin on drive C: (the internal drive) are VISIBLE!!

Hurray.

I should have tried it earlier but never thought of trying it until now.

Next, I will re-install each external (I have 9) and find the culprit.

THANKS TO DAVID AND TRAINABLE MAN.

 

[TrainableMan]

Removing the directory (David's suggestion) does not just empty the recycle bin, it completely removes the folder and all indexes to deleted files. This forces windows to rebuild the recycle bin completely and that can usually fix most recycle problems.

You hadn't mentioned the additional drives before. Each drive has it's own $Recycle.Bin so for multiple drives the expanded solution is rd /s /q X:\$Recycle.bin where X is each and every hard drive letter you have C: , D: , E: , etc. So if the problem reappears when you attach the external hard drives, be sure to remove the $recycle.bin on the drive you plugged in.

 

[cooperslay]

Removing the directory (David's suggestion) does not just empty the recycle bin, it completely removes the folder and all indexes to deleted files. This forces windows to rebuild the recycle bin completely and that can usually fix most recycle problems.

You hadn't mentioned the additional drives before. Each drive has it's own $Recycle.Bin so for multiple drives the expanded solution is rd /s /q X:\$Recycle.bin where X is each and every hard drive letter you have C: , D: , E: , etc. So if the problem reappears when you attach the external hard drives, be sure to remove the $recycle.bin on the drive you plugged in.

Thank you again for your follow through.
By re-plugging each drive and checking the recycle bin, I was soon able to find the culprit. It had a folder "Recycler". In that folder there were two files/folders with long numbers/names which could not be opened. I simply used Delete ...deleted them (and the Recycler folder) and the problem disappeared for my entire system.

In order to help other folks in the future, a straightforward approach would be:
Check each hard drive for the existence of "Recycler" folder.
Does the Recycler foldercontain folders or files that cannot be opened?
If so, delete them.

In my case, I now believe that the cause of the problem was that I had deleted from that particular hard drive more files than its deleted-files database file could contain. That made that database file unreadable and that, in turn, made the Recycle Bin on all other drives unreadable ... because the Recycle Bin contains the directory of deleted files from ALL drives. So, a jammed "Recycler" on one drive will make the Recycle Bin on all drives unreadable.

 

[LutherTrent]

youtu.be/0lMztoOigks
Great of this, here is a way to recover deleted files from recycle bin