Fix: Recycle Bin not Displaying Deleted Files

Problem: The Recycle Bin no longer displays any of the files that you send to it, or keeps showing files after you’ve emptied the bin.

Fix: The Recycle Bin is corrupted. Flush it.

In this case the Recycle Bin has become corrupted (for whatever reason) and we need to delete the folder that holds the Recycle Bin data. This will reset the Recycle Bin.

Unfortunately there are two different methods; one for Windows XP and one for Windows Vista. They are similar with the exception that the files you must delete in each Operating System is different. I’ll outline both methods.

THE XP METHOD:

This is how you fix the issue in Windows XP:

1. Open up a command prompt.
2. Change to the root directory of your Windows install (in most cases it will be C:\). Do this by typing: “CD C:\”
3. Type in “rd recycler /s /q” to delete the folder.
4. Reboot the computer. Windows will create a fresh healthy copy of the “Recycler” folder.

THE VISTA METHOD:

This is how you fix the issue in Windows Vista:

1. Open up an elevated command prompt. (Right click on the command prompt icon and select “Run As Administrator”.
2. Change to the root directory of your Windows install (in most cases it will be C:\). Do this by typing: “CD C:\”
3. Type in “rd $Recycle.bin /s /q”.
4. Reboot the computer. Windows will create a fresh healthy copy of the “$Recycle.bin” files