Solved Recycle Bin does not display files deleted from NTFS drives

[GeorgeC]

Here is my situation:


My system is a Dell XPS 8300 running Windows 7 Home Premium.

I need help in getting the recycle bin to show deleted files. Of course, deleted files that are not visible cannot be restored.


But the deleted files ARE in the recycle bin.

How do I know?


1. Clicking on "Empty the recycle bin" identifies the right number of deleted files in the Recycle bin the including invisible ones, though clicking the "Restore All items" button restores only visible files.


2. The CCleaner utility (from Piriform.com) sees them. When I press the ‘Analyze’ button with the ‘Empty recycle bin’ set, I can see all the erased files, but cannot restore them from there, since CCleaner is designed to remove junk files, not to restore them

More details:
1. When I delete a file from external drive J:, it IS visible in the recycle bin. J: is a FAT drive. (Previously it was connected to an XP system )
2. Files deleted from Local drive C: and external drive L: are NOT visible in the recycle bin. C: and L: are formatted as NTFS
3. Disconnect the L: external drive and the files deleted from C: reappear in the recycle bin. Reconnect the L: drive and they disappear again.

In short:

• L: deleted files NEVER show in the recycle bin,
• J: deleted files ALWAYS appear in the recycle bin,
• C: deleted files appear in the recycle bin if L: is disconnected, and disappear if L: is connected.

4. Both J: and L: are external drives connected to USB ports of the system. However, both are identified as Local Drives rather than as Removable Drives.



What I tried:
1. From the command line (as administrator) I ran “rd /s /q/ [drive name:]\$recycle.bin” for drives C: and L: (and J: too) and still no fix. The idea was that the recycle bin folders were corrupted and would be regenerated uncorrupted.
2. I ran Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebyte -Anti Malware in addition to McAfee which came with my system. None of these is detecting any malware on my system.


Any help would be appreciated.


gc

 

[A Guy]

Welcome to Seven Forums GeorgeC. Not sure I can tell you the answer, but let's get some info so maybe the smart people here can

Open L:> Organize (Upper left)> Folder and search options> View tab> Put a check mark next to Show hidden files, folders, and drives (if it isn't checked already)> Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)> Click Yes on the warning popup> Apply> OK

Now a hidden recycle bin folder named $RECYCLE.BIN will be showing. Left click it and see if your deleted files are there.

Also, post a screenshot of your Disk Management screen

Start> In search box type computer management> Enter> In left pane click on Disk Management> Post a screenshot of this

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

You can now reverse the order and recheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended), and uncheck Show hidden files, folders, and drives if it was not checked before.

A Guy

 

[GeorgeC]

Thanks, A Guy.

Attached is a shot of "Disk Management" screen.

As mentioned in the earlier message, the L: deleted files are not in the hidden $RECYCLE.BIN folder.

More details:

in the L: $RECYCLE.BIN folder is another folder called "Recycle Bin". The icon beside it is a padlock with a page. Opening THAT subfolder, one can see the file deleted from J:

in the C: $RECYCLE.BIN folder, there are two items.

• The first is folder called "Recycle Bin" (just like in L and it contains the same file deleted from J:
• The second is another folder "S-1-5-20". I cannot open it (even though having Admin rights) . The dialog says "Location is not available" and "Access is denied".

Hoping for a solution.


gc aka GeorgeC

 

[AddRAM]

Why are you trying to view or restore items you put in the recycle bin ?

I set mine to delete, not to store them.

 

[GeorgeC]

?????

I want the recycle bin to behave in the way it is supposed to.

When I delete something, it should go to the recycle bin and allow the OPTION to be restored!

 

[Layback Bear]

You can right click on the Recycle Bin icon and got to properties. I think you will see what you want.

 

[A Guy]

The folder "S-1-5-20" is the security identifier of the user that deleted the file, that is normal. What is in the contents of drive L:? Did it have an operating system on it? Older OS use a different designation for the recycle bin. Am I correct to assume that everything worked correctly before with L: connected with it's current content?

A Guy

 

[edwar]

Right click on the recycling bin and select properties. In the window that comes up check each drive for the option to "Don't move files to the recycle bin. remove files immediately when deleted"

Tick "Custom size" for each drive and expand it to something realistic like 4500MB.

 

[GeorgeC]

What is in the contents of drive L:? Did it have an operating system on it? Older OS use a different designation for the recycle bin. Am I correct to assume that everything worked correctly before with L: connected with it's current content?

A Guy

What is in the contents of drive L:? Miscellaneous Files and folders
Did it have an operating system on it? Older OS use a different designation for the recycle bin.
No operating system

Am I correct to assume that everything worked correctly before with L: connected with it's current content?

Good assumption, and 99% likely correct. I'm hesitating on the last 1% only because I may not have been paying attention earlier.

Also, as I described before, disconnect the L: drive (LaCie 2TB Minimus) and everything is OK.

Now some additional info: My daughter has an identical LaCie 2TB Minimus. It has two partitions: Fat32 and Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The FAT32 is visible from my WIN7 machine, the Mac partition, not. More importantly, connecting it to my Win7 machine I see content of my recycle bin fine, i.e no problem.

With my identical drive, the content of the recycle bin disappears. What's the difference between the two drives? I created a 1.81TB NTFS partition on my drive leaving 532MB as a FAT32 (of which 0MB is empty).

Clearly the problem is somehow related to the NTFS partition that I created, but Why? And how to fix the problem (without having to change the NTFS partition to FAT32)?

 

[GeorgeC]

Right click on the recycling bin and select properties. In the window that comes up check each drive for the option to "Don't move files to the recycle bin. remove files immediately when deleted"

Tick "Custom size" for each drive and expand it to something realistic like 4500MB.

The Maximum size for drive L: is set to 97407MB.

 

[GeorgeC]

Fixed, but not resolved.

Let me explain. I succeeded in getting the hidden deleted files to appear in the recycle bin. Connecting the External Lacie Minimus drive "L:" no longer causes the deleted files to be masked and hidden from the recycle bin.

What did it?
The Lacie Minimus drive came partitioned to include a volume called “Lacie Setup”. I assigned to it the drive letter “K:”. That FAT32 532MB drive was virtually fully used up. When explorer was set to view hidden files, a set of files with names commencing with a “._” (period-underscore) became visible. These types of hidden files are indicative of the drive having been previously mounted to a MacOSX system. I deleted these files, and the content of the recycle bin reappeared. Why? I have no idea. These hidden files occupied the 24kb of free space. and this possibly interfered with the mechanisms of the recycle bin.

Other possible actions that fixed the recycle bin problem.

• I shrunk the NTFS volume on the Lacie Minimus creating unallocated space
• I formatted the unallocated space as an exFAT volume. At this point the content of the recycle bin appeared. I had deleted the “*_” starting hidden files in the “lacie setup” drive at the same time.
• I deleted the exFAT volume again, leaving the space unallocated. The content of the recycle bin did NOT disappear.

Based on the observation that the content of the recycle bin NOT disappearing after the deletion of the exFAT volume, I am crediting the deletion of the “*_” starting hidden files with fixing the problem, though I have no idea how these two aspects of the system are linked.

 

[A Guy]

Glad you got it sorted. We'll just blame Apple

A Guy