Question About External Drive & Recycle Bin Issue

Hello All.

Recently I deleted a few files from an external drive however the laptop crashed (BSOD) before I was able to empty the recycle bin. Afterwards I was only able to login into Windows using the Admin account. I then noticed that the recycle bin was now empty.

I took care of the PC issues but I became worried about the state of the external drive even though it seems fine.

I accessed its hidden recycle bin folder. What should I look for?

Could there be any issues with the drive? Again it seems fine and I have caching disabled so what do yo think?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Either it's the USB port, the USB cable or a failing drive.

Try a new USB port and delete something.

Check the drive with HDTune, Hard Disk Sentinel, and H2testw.


(My text changed color because of the stupid WYSWYG crap. Can't seem to undo it.)


Download Hard Disk Sentinel

Download H2testw 1.4

HD Tune website

With SMART data, you may or may not be able to read that through USB. The drive would have to be plugged into a SATA port.

F22 Simpilot said:

Either it's the USB port, the USB cable or a failing drive.

Try a new USB port and delete something.

I don't know how you came to that answer if you read my question.

As I stated above: The hard drive is working FINE.

I want to know why one user would have an empty recycle bin and another would not and if that might signal some sort of corruption of the drive or its recycle bin folder.

What you are seeing is normal.

Each user has their own recycle bin with the files they have deleted. The hidden recycle bin folder has a subfolder for each account that has deleted files. Users have no access to the deleted files of other users. This is for security reasons to prevent a user from accessing another users files, potentially containing sensitive data.

XLR8TX said:

I don't know how you came to that answer if you read my question.

As I stated above: The hard drive is working FINE.

I want to know why one user would have an empty recycle bin and another would not and if that might signal some sort of corruption of the drive or its recycle bin folder.

You should have stated that you had more than one user using the HDD in the first place. On its face it sounded like a bad drive, or it was in fact a bad USB connection. Thus, my conclusion.

LMiller7 said:

What you are seeing is normal.

Each user has their own recycle bin with the files they have deleted. The hidden recycle bin folder has a subfolder for each account that has deleted files. Users have no access to the deleted files of other users. This is for security reasons to prevent a user from accessing another users files, potentially containing sensitive data.

Thanks for the helpful response.

F22 Simpilot said:

You should have stated that you had more than one user using the HDD in the first place. On its face it sounded like a bad drive, or it was in fact a bad USB connection. Thus, my conclusion.

I did. I stated that one of the user accounts had become corrupted and I had to access Windows using another account.

Also, twice I specified that the drive was FINE. So how can you say "On its face it sounded like a bad drive".

If you really intend to be helpful take the time to understand what is being conveyed and what is being asked.

Your first post here makes no mention of another account/s only to mention you used the Admin account to gain access.

Hello All.

Recently I deleted a few files from an external drive however the laptop crashed (BSOD) before I was able to empty the recycle bin. Afterwards I was only able to login into Windows using the Admin account. I then noticed that the recycle bin was now empty.

I took care of the PC issues but I became worried about the state of the external drive even though it seems fine.

I accessed its hidden recycle bin folder. What should I look for?

Could there be any issues with the drive? Again it seems fine and I have caching disabled so what do yo think?

Thanks in advance for any help.

When you said the computer crashed it sounded as if you had a HDD issue, especially referencing a bad recycle bin.