Preventing Recycle Bin errors on external drives


meridius

New member
Local time
10:35 PM
Posts
23
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Today I learnt that my external hard drive has a Recycle Bin by going into Control Panel > (View by: Large Icons) > File Explorer Options > View > Show hidden files, folders and drives (select) > Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) - (unclick) > Apply > OK, then going into the external drive from File Explorer and viewing what is in the Recycle Bin for that drive letter and deleting it.

In addition it is possible to right click the Recycle Bin on the desktop select Properties > (select appropriate drive) > (Settings for selected location) > Don't move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted (select) > Display delete confirmation dialog (select) > Apply > OK.

Is this an advisable course of action in external hard drives, especially those which are encrypted, in order to prevent future errors?

In addition what happens in these external drives for the Custom size in Settings for selected location for the Recycle Bin capacity when the maximum size in MB is reached or passed?

Many thanks for any advice.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
Hello, :-)

Usually, the Recycle Bin is disabled for removable drives.

You can disable it below if this is considered a removable drive in Windows. Otherwise, the Recycle Bin is stored on the drive, and has all the usual settings.

 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self build
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING (11GB GDDR5X)
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G75 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3 wall mounted
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gbps Download and 35 Mbps Upload
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Spectre x360 2in1 14-eu0098nr (2024)
    CPU
    Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 4.8 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB LPDDR5x-7467 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Integrated Intel Arc
    Sound Card
    Poly Studio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    14" 2.8K OLED multitouch
    Screen Resolution
    2880 x 1800
    Hard Drives
    2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
    Internet Speed
    Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.4
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium
I think the Recycle Bin was enabled by default in my WD My Passport 2TB external drive and I have just disabled it...

In relation to internal HDDs my understanding is that any data deleted in any partition other than the C drive immediately goes to the Recycle Bin of the C drive first...
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
Each drive has it's own recycle bin storage on it, but all referenced in the main Recycle Bin on your desktop.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self build
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING (11GB GDDR5X)
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G75 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3 wall mounted
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gbps Download and 35 Mbps Upload
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Spectre x360 2in1 14-eu0098nr (2024)
    CPU
    Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 4.8 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB LPDDR5x-7467 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Integrated Intel Arc
    Sound Card
    Poly Studio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    14" 2.8K OLED multitouch
    Screen Resolution
    2880 x 1800
    Hard Drives
    2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
    Internet Speed
    Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.4
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium
Many thanks for your informative link. I did not have the concentration to take it all in late last night!

I think I may have created the problem myself by running a 36 hour DBAN secure scan last weekend and possibly stretching the hardware of the mechanical drive. I needed to run this as I don't believe the Western Digital WD Drive Utilities Drive Erase function is sufficient for secure deletion purposes and I did not want to use the other alternative which would have been to have got the hammer out of the cupboard!

Nevertheless the external drive passed a WD extended drive test last night and I have just run chkdsk from Windows 11 with no errors found. There did not appear to be any errors yesterday when I was testing the drive unencrypted but this error has come now this morning again after I set up WD encryption yesterday so one line of thinking is that this may possibly be an encryption error. I just checked now and there are no files in $RECYCLE.BIN and for the purposes of this test the Recycle Bin folder on the desktop was set to remove files immediately when deleted for this drive. I am running a full security scan on this drive and will report back any malware should this be the case.

I have never had this problem before and am thinking of buying a new external drive as this will be one of my main external HDDs and I don't want to take any risks of data loss or corruption at this stage, unless the problem below is being reported on a larger basis by users of Windows 11 and 10 and with no data loss or corruption consequences...

I attach a screenshot of the message I got below when I started my laptop this morning.

Recycle Bin Corrupted.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
After finding some additional suggestions online and making sure to show hidden files and protected operating system files, I actually deleted the $RECYCLE.BIN folder in the external drive. The folder $RECYCLE.BIN and it's attached file Recycle Bin recreated itself almost immediately after deletion.

I hope that this solution, as well as eliminating any potential malware from the external drive, will help to solve this problem.

SRecycleBin.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self build
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING (11GB GDDR5X)
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G75 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3 wall mounted
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gbps Download and 35 Mbps Upload
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Spectre x360 2in1 14-eu0098nr (2024)
    CPU
    Intel Core Ultra 7 155H 4.8 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB LPDDR5x-7467 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Integrated Intel Arc
    Sound Card
    Poly Studio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    14" 2.8K OLED multitouch
    Screen Resolution
    2880 x 1800
    Hard Drives
    2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
    Internet Speed
    Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.4
    Browser
    Chrome and Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium
Many thanks. I will keep your notes in mind for these types of problems.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro

Latest Support Threads

Back
Top Bottom