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Recycle bin shows empty on File Explorer, but WindirStat shows it taking up space

Anonymous
2023-03-13T17:22:10+00:00

My C drive was almost full and I tried to clean it up by moving folders to recycle bin and deleting them. While some of the space has been released, My C drive still consumes a lot of space.

If I try the "rd /s /q C:$Recycle.bin" from an elevated command prompt, I get a sequence of messages like

C:$Recycle.bin\S-1-5-~4$R21BCUZ\ONEDRI~1\GOOGLE~1\GOOGLE~2\2018\10\IMG_20181004_190218.jpg - Access is denied. C:$Recycle.bin\S-1-5-~4$R21BCUZ\ONEDRI~1\GOOGLE~1\GOOGLE~2\2018\10\IMG_20181008_173827.jpg - Access is denied. C:$Recycle.bin\S-1-5-~4$R21BCUZ\ONEDRI~1\GOOGLE~1\GOOGLE~2\2018\10\IMG_20181008_173828.jpg - Access is denied. C:$Recycle.bin\S-1-5-~4$R21BCUZ\ONEDRI~1\GOOGLE~1\GOOGLE~2\2018\10\IMG_20181008_173831.jpg - Access is denied. C:$Recycle.bin\S-1-5-~4$R21BCUZ\ONEDRI~1\GOOGLE~1\GOOGLE~2\2018\10\IMG_20181008_173838.jpg - Access is denied.

a "Dir" command on Recycle Bin produces the following

====

C:$Recycle.Bin>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 70FE-6053

Directory of C:$Recycle.Bin

File Not Found

====

File explorer also shows Recycle bin to be empty

WinDirStat gives me the following:

Any ideas on recovering the storage space. I do not need the files. They have been backed up on Google Drive. I also do not have access to the OneDrive account where they were originally stored and synced.

Just noticed that the last error message talks about a file being locked

"C:$Recycle.bin\S-1-5-~4$R21BCUZ\ONEDRI~1\Pictures\VIDEOP~1\Nrtya-Veerangana - YouTube.mp4 - Access is denied.
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
"

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-13T17:51:33+00:00

    That's probably because the OS drive is not C:\ (when in WinRE)

    Did you run BCDEDIT (which I mentioned in my last post) after loading WinRE?

    Boot into WinRE, take a photo of the BCDEDIT output and upload it.

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-13T17:47:20+00:00

    Tried that. While the rd/s/q C:$Recycle.bin command runs without any errors, I do not see any change when I boot into normal mode.

    My OS Drive was D. Hence it did not work the first time. Running rd/s/q D:$Recycle.bin worked. Did not read the instructions properly the first time.

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  2. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-03-13T17:36:57+00:00

    Boot into Windows RE and run rd /s /q C:$Recycle.bin

    To enter Windows RE, from the login screen, click Shutdown, then hold down the Shift key while selecting Restart.

    After entering Windows RE Command Prompt, make sure you first check your OS drive letter by running BCDEDIT.

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