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Recycle bin not emptying

Anonymous
2020-01-14T09:49:05+00:00

Hi

I have had my new laptop with windows 10 for 2 weeks.

When I go in and empty the recycle bin not all the items are deleted. When I right click on the items and hit delete they still don't delete.

Please help.

Howelm

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Kapil Arya 37,686 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2020-01-14T10:42:11+00:00

    Hello,

    Open Disk Cleanup. Select Recycle Bin and click OK. 

    See if this helps!

    60+ people found this answer helpful.
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Answer accepted by question author

  1. DaveM121 871.8K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-01-14T10:13:27+00:00

    Hi Howelm

    Were those items deleted form the hard drive of your PC or from an external drive or flash drive

    If those were deleted form an external drive, connect that drive and then try deleting them again

    Otherwise, you Recycle Bin is corrupt . . .

    Open a Command Prompt window as administrator:

    (Click your Start Button, type cmd, right click Command Prompt in the resulting list and choose 'Run as Administrator')

    Paste the following command and hit Enter:

    rd /s /q C:$Recycle.bin

    Close the Command Prompt window and restart your system

    When your system starts up:

    Create a new text file on your desktop and delete it to recreate a new recycle bin on your C Drive

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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3 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-09T03:59:52+00:00

    when i enter that rd /s /q C:$Recycle.bin.  it tells that one of the folder in the $recycle bin has denied access and the directory is not empty. I had sign up as an administrator in windows 10. I also tried to find the folder and tried to delete it but access is denied there too

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-14T11:28:31+00:00

    I did as you advised but when I went into my recycle bin after they were still there.

    I then did what another moderator recommended which was to connect my external hard drive and when I went into the recycle bin to try and delete them again, they were gone!.

    So I am not sure which procedure did the trick but thank you for your advice.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-14T11:21:26+00:00

    The files are now gone from my recycle bin but I am not sure by what proceedure did it.

    See I had a rely from another Independent Advisor  / Volunteer Moderator who recommended I open Disk Cleanup and select recycle bin which I did but when I checked they were still there.

    Then I tried your advice and attached my external hard drive and  I opened my recycle bin and they were gone.

    Whichever way thanks for your advice.

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