I can't seem to recover any files from Recyle Bin. Can anyone help me?

For the first time ever (believe it or not), I have deleted a file by mistake and tried to recover it from the Recycle Bin.

But when I try to access the Recycle Bin using Windows Explorer, I get the following message:

D:\$Recycle Bin\S-1 5-18 is not accessible. Access is denied.

FYI, when using Windows Explorer, my Recycle Bin shows up in Windows Explorer as "$RECYCLE.BIN" and shows as having 3 sub-folders. The root directory for D:\$Recycle Bin shows as being empty. The three sub-folders are shown to be:

1. AGK
2. Recycle Bin
3. S-1-5-18

The first sub-folder (AGK) is the result of my installing a software package named Auto-Gordian Knot.

The second sub-folder (Recycle Bin) shows as being empty.

The third sub-folder (S-1-5-18) is where I assume the file would be located. But when I ty to open it, I get that message.

I get the same result whether I try drive C: or D: (I have two hard drives installed).
But I recall having specified in the configuration of my Recycle Bin to use one Bin for all my hard drives.

Actually, before making this post, I tried to verify the configuration of the Recycle Bin and so I right-clicked on it and then selected "Properties". I can't seem to find that entry that enabled me to choose whether I wanted to use a separate Recycle Bin for each drive or one single Recyle Bin over all drives. So, maybe that was something I specified in Windows XP and it is no longer done like that in Windows 7?

But I saw something called "Security" in the properties context menu and it allows me to change the permissions for the Recycle Bin. It shows as having three different groups of users:

1. SYSTEM
2. Administrators (Admin-PC\Administrators)
3. Users (Admin-PC\Users)

I changed the permissions to allow the second group (Administrators (Admin-PC\Administrators)) full permission (because that is the group I am currently using) and I got very strange error messages. They said something about trying to change the permissions for one group would result in all groups having that same permission and that would be inconsistent. I have no idea why this would be inconsistent or what to do about it.

But no matter which group I try to change, it seems to show up as affecting all three groups and I'm afraid to remove any of the groups. I'm especially puzzled by the group SYSTEM. I figured that meant all users (sort of System-Wide). Is that correct? If not can you please me what is the SYSTEM group?

Bottom line, no matter which group I try to change, I get the same error messages and I still can't access any files in the Recycle Bin.

Can anyone help me please? How can I recover deleted files from my Recycle Bin?

A Guy said:

Let me make sure I have the situation right. The file is currently in the recycle bin? Or has it been deleted from the recycle bin?

If it currently resides in the recycle bin, you should be able to click on the recycle bin and click on the file and choose restore.

If you have deleted it, you can try a program like Recuva to retrieve it.

A Guy

I am so sorry. I now realize that I have deleted the file from the Recycle Bin and so I wouldn't have expected to see it there.

I'm sorry because I feel like I wasted your time.

But it's really good to know about this app called Recuva and I'm guessing it will serve me well in the future.

Thank you so much.