Recycle Bin has no files in it, but it isn't empty

[alanf617]

A puzzle:

Recycle bin appears empty when you double-click on it, yet options to empty it and to restore files are available. The icon shows that there is something in the recycle bin.

Windows XP is set up to show hidden files and system files, allowing up to 10% of the hard disk space to be used for the recycle bin.

Very odd

Alan

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by alanf617

A puzzle:

Recycle bin appears empty when you double-click on it, yet options to empty it and to restore files are available. The icon shows that there is something in the recycle bin.

Windows XP is set up to show hidden files and system files, allowing up to 10% of the hard disk space to be used for the recycle bin.

Very odd

Alan

Try:

Command Prompt;
CD \RECYCLED
ATTRIB -r -s -h info2
Type DEL INFO2

the info2 file sounds like it's corrupted and should recreate itself as needed.

[alanf617]

Originally Posted by Bifta

Try:

Command Prompt;
CD \RECYCLED
ATTRIB -r -s -h info2
Type DEL INFO2

the info2 file sounds like it's corrupted and should recreate itself as needed.

Thanks.... errrr .... CD \Recycled doesn't exist, nor does CD \ recycle bin ( from DOS prompt).

Found Recycler, but no info2 file in it to change the attributes of
More confused

[Bifta]

You might have a corrupted icon, you could try increasing the icon cache:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...icle.asp?ID=56

[alanf617]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache
does not exist on my PC. Inside Advanced is only a folder called Folder, no Iconcache anywhere in the registry. Is it safe to create folders? I get twitchy when doing things to the registry.

I can browse to C:\recycled inside Windows explorer, there's a single folder there with a name S-1-5-21-1715567821-507921405-839522115-1004, which contains all the deleted files, which I can view in explorer. No Info2 file anywhere in sight.

[alanf617]

Originally Posted by Bifta

You might have a corrupted icon, you could try increasing the icon cache:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...icle.asp?ID=56

Thanks..... I now have 2048 worth of icons, but no other discernable change.
Help

[inthewildteam]

You don't have any Norton products on your machine do you?

[alanf617]

Nope.

McAfee Antivirus only.

Off to bed now
;-)

[inthewildteam]

Originally Posted by alanf617

Nope.

McAfee Antivirus only.

Off to bed now
;-)

Let me know your machine config, op system, updates and patches etc and I might be able to help. Norton does have a problem with recycle bin under various Widoze flavours especially after an uninstall. Might be worth a check of of the M.$ knowledgebase for your version of McAF***up for problems.

[Richard M]

Have you tried doing a system restore or are you using an old OS?

[alanf617]

I couldn't find anything relevant in the Micro$oft Knowledge base about recycle bin, will search under McAfee tonight when I finish work

And it's XP Home, (SP2 I think) 512 Mb RAM, oodles of space on the HDD as I've got the HDD from the old PC as drive E. Drive C is partitioned to C and D, makes no difference whether I tell the machine to use one recycle bin only or one for each drive. All patches up to date from the Micro$oft website.

And this has been going on for ages, so I don't want to do a SYSTEM RESTORE as I'll lose quite a few programs.

[Nemesis]

This might help

http://www.geekgirls.com/windows_recycle_bin.htm

[Nemesis]

or this

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/...3&page=1&pp=15

[Buzzby]

Go here, down to No 64, right hand side

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

replace/repair the recycle bin in windows xp

it may work, his help repair script worked for me.

[alanf617]

Gentlemen, we've cracked it!
Thanks for your help. The Geekgirls and cybertechelp had similar ideas, not sure which was most helpful. I tried most of what they suggested, added a new file to the bin, emptied the bin, deleted INFO2 file ( which suddenly appeared, wasn't there last night) deleted the recycle bin itself and rebooted. The patch from kelly's corner did nothing.

The sudden appearance of the critical INFO2 file makes me think that the problem was caused by a corrupt file within the bin, but who cares!

Goodnight all, thanks for your help and shame about the match tonight. I have some sympathy with Beckham, if he's been cr*pped on by every newspaper for weeks, it must be hard to play at your best.

Alan