Recycle Bin: deleted items not appearing in recycle bin

[jkotsonas]

Good afternoon,
Hopefully someone has experienced this and can offer advice.

A user is deleting files, but they are not appearing in the recycle bin

- user is deleting from her computer, and not a network location, or flash drive
- computer is not partitioned - only has a "C" drive
- computer is W7 32-bit
- user is not a local admin
- Use has 6 different recycle bins (right-click on RB desktop icon > properties > recycle bin location); some of the locations are "My Pictures", "My Videos" etc.... We are not able to manage the size of
these locations.
- all of the RB locations are set to "Custom Size"
- have tried:
a. deleting everything out of the RB
b. (running as admin) RD /S /Q C:\$Recycle.bin
c. set to view hidden & system files/folders, gone to "C" and deleted the $RECYCLE.BIN folder. clicked yest at all the prompts, including: Do this for all current items

** after both b & c, rebooted the computer

So far, nothing has worked. Might anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[sygnus21]

Hi jkotsonas, welcome to seven forums.

Not sure if this is your issue, but with different users, each will have his/her own recycle bin and as such, items from one user won't show in another user's bin.

Is this the issue?

 

[Ztruker]

Check that the recycle bin is setup to receive deleted files:

1. Right-click the Recycle Bin, and then click Properties.
2. Unselect Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted radio button by selecting Custom Size.
3. Click OK.

 

[sygnus21]

Hmmm... Shouldn't this be "deselected" by default? On my Win 7 machine it is; it's also deselected on both my Win 8 machines by default.

Unselect Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted radio button by selecting Custom Size.

Anyway that might be the issue... the option is selected. Good post.

 

[jkotsonas]

Thanks very for the replies everyone.

@ sygnus21 - I don't believe that is the issue. It's a fairly recently re-imaged machine, so the current user is the only one with a log on profile (aside from Admin and Public). I'll dbl check though, and if there are other profiles, I'll delete them and see if that does anything.

@ Ztruker - apologies for my vagueness. When I orig. posted "all of the RB locations are set to "Custom Size"", I was implying that the "Do not move files..." bullet was unchecked. You cannot select both, so by default if the "Custom" bullet is checked, then the "Do not move files..." is unchecked.

To add to my original post... there is no iPhone, iPod, external drive, USB stick or any 3rd party device connected to the laptop. The laptop is in a docking station/port replicator, and the only things plugged in are the external mouse, keyboard, and then the monitor.

 

[RolandJS]

A security/privacy program might be "catching" deleted files and "shredding" them. Checked for this?

 

[Berton]

Also note that holding down the Shift while clicking Delete or pressing the Delete key bypasses the Recycle Bin but there's usually a message/question about permanently deleting items.

 

[jkotsonas]

Also note that holding down the Shift while clicking Delete or pressing the Delete key bypasses the Recycle Bin but there's usually a message/question about permanently deleting items.

Thanks Berton. Yep - I've tested myself (logged on as the user).

After I attempted "method 2" (Recycle Bin Corrupted - Cannot Delete File or Folder) from this site, I rebooted the laptop, and then as the user I created a new .txt file, saved it to the desktop and then deleted it (right click > delete w/ no shift).

Opened the RB and it was not there.

 

[Berton]

From what you are saying it appears you are not getting the standard message about moving the file to the Recycle Bin that you have to click Yes on to make it happen. Is that correct?

 

[jkotsonas]

From what you are saying it appears you are not getting the standard message about moving the file to the Recycle Bin that you have to click Yes on to make it happen. Is that correct?

Thanks Berton.

Nope, sorry if I was unclear. I just verified again to be sure - I created a test .txt doc on the desktop, and when you right click and select delete, the "are you sure you want to move ...." prompt appears. You click "Yes", but when you check the RB it's not there.

 

[jkotsonas]

Hi jkotsonas, welcome to seven forums.

Not sure if this is your issue, but with different users, each will have his/her own recycle bin and as such, items from one user won't show in another user's bin.

Is this the issue?

I dbl checked to verify, and the only profiles on the laptop are:

Admin
Default
* the end user *
Public

 

[jkotsonas]

A security/privacy program might be "catching" deleted files and "shredding" them. Checked for this?

Thanks Roland. Checked and there's nothing installed on the laptop that isn't standard on our image - we use Symantec for our corp anti-virus.

But no 3rd party programs that the EU installed.

 

[jkotsonas]

I'm leaning to a corrupt profile at this point.

I logged on to the laptop as myself. The RB properties were set to Custom, and there's only one instance showing in the "location" window.

I created test notepad doc, saved to the desktop and then deleted. Got the prompt, and the file was present in the RB when I dbl clicked on it.

Still hoping to determine a root cause if possible though.

 

[michaelst]

If this is a business set-up, your network administrator may have group policies set up differently for users with disparet security levels.

 

[jkotsonas]

Thanks Michaelst.

I checked w/ our Network team and it wasn't a Group Policy issue. The cause ended up being an Active Directory security group. Her account was a member of an internal "Folderredirect..." security group that is intended for terminal server users.

Her Desktop and some other folders were being redirected to one of our fileservers, which is why the locally-deleted files ended up behaving like they were deleted from a network location.

Removing her from that group and rebooting the laptop resolved.

Sadly, the above resolution will probably help no one outside of where I work, but figure I'd post it just
in case.

Thanks very much to everyone who took the time to reply and offer assistance.

 

[sygnus21]

Happy to hear the issue got resolved. If nothing else, this is a lesson to those who run networks.

Thanks.

Peace