How can I change the windows 'delete' function?

TheStraying11 · 03 May 2017

Hi, I was wondering if its possible to have the 'delete' function in windows 7 professional move deleted files to another drive instead of just 'listing them as deleted' to save space on the main drive while still allowing the files to be recovered from a backup drive. I say this because i currently have little space left on my main drive, I have already moved my downloads folder and i'd like to do the same with the recycle bin, I know nothing normally is moved when deleted, but i'd like it to be moved to D:\Deleted

LMiller7 · 03 May 2017

Welcome to the forum.

Windows does not have this feature. I suppose it could be done but would require some rather advanced programming and likely be quite fragile. This isn't really a practical idea.

Barman58 · 03 May 2017

Have you considered a more manual option ?

Use the delete/recycle bin system as usual and then at the end of each day open the recycle bin and drag the contents you wish to retain (or All), to your location D:\deleted you could even add a subfolder for each Day/Week/Or Month to improve retrieval later if required.

I have manually checked and manually moving the files from the recycle bin works (on latest Windows 10 pro )

You would also have to decide what happens with duplicate files if the same named file is deleted in the same period more than once, also some files are too large for the recycle Bin these you would have to manually move to your D:\deleted and not deleted which would actually delete them

It may be possible to achieve this programmatically, with Powershell or other scripting system and a scheduled task at a convenient time / Log-on or Log-Off Etc. but this would be beyond my skillset - there are a number of powershell script libraries across the net which may have what you need

TheStraying11 · 03 May 2017

Barman58 said:

It may be possible to achieve this programmatically, with Powershell or other scripting system and a scheduled task at a convenient time / Log-on or Log-Off Etc. but this would be beyond my skillset - there are a number of powershell script libraries across the net which may have what you need

I suppose i could try this solution, Thank you for your replies. though i really had hoped this could be done, i guess i was hoping too much of microsoft... Never mind, Thank you for the suggestion, I'll have to find out what languages can be used to do this as i know very few but it is a possibilty, Again, thanks :)

EDIT:
For anyone looking for a solution, i used the batch script below

Code:

SET Today=%Date:~10,4%%Date:~4,2%%Date:~7,2%
mkdir D:\Deleted\%Today%
move C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3881916912-2168856619-4228707496-1000\* D:\Deleted\%Today%
SET Today=

And set it to run on startup. You may need to change the directories after 'mkdir' and 'move' to suit your needs if you decide to use this script yourself.

Source