REF: WinXP Pro SP3, CCleaner v3.00.1303
On each hard drive I've noticed a NEW folder:
$RECYCLE.BIN (system/hidden)
Is this a CCleaner folder
Windows itself creates them on each hdd partition which will have a hidden recycler. It's how Windows Disk Cleanup knows what was deleted off a particular hdd partition.
NO
The folder-name I listed is EXACT.
It is in ADDITION to RECYCLER & Recycled folders.
Sounds like (maybe) in the last batch of updates Microsoft brought XP to par with Vista/7 which uses $recycle.bin as opposed to $recycler
I don't have a recycle.bin on my xp sp3 though. only recycler. I also don't have a "recycled" folder. Maybe you have another software that is creating these folders
Ccleaner does not create folders
? or maybe you used Windows 7 just once on the drive(s) in question. I noticed the additional (hidden) $RECYCLE.BIN appearing on my portable USB drive after using it with Windows 7 for the first time.
Now I have two Recycle Bins on it: RECYCLER (used by Windows XP) and $RECYCLE.BIN (used by Windows 7). I decided to just leave them as they are, because they?re empty anyway. I?m a notorious ?Empty Recycle Bin? fanboy, and always empty the Recycle Bin before removing the portable drive. The stored information would be of no use on another system anyway.
I have never had Win7.
Odd. Maybe Vista?
FYI: Windows? Recycle Bin is physically kept on a ?per drive?-basis, while the desktop icon shows them ?all together?.
On older FAT file systems, the folders were called RECYCLED (or Recycled), on NTFS file systems (NT, 2k, XP) RECYCLER. With the advent of Vista, MS decided to rename it yet again, to $RECYCLE.BIN (the internal format has also changed then). Same is still valid for Windows 7.
Not Vista.
But found solution
- Went to Microsoft Fix It Solution Center
- Selected the Windows icon
- Ran the top option = Diagnose and repair Windows File and Folder Problems automatically
The downloaded EXE installed PowerShell 1.0, ran AND found the recycle bin was corrupted, THEN fixed it.
AFTER reboot the $RECYCLE.BIN folder was no longer system/hidden, BUT inside this folder was the normal Recycle Bin folder.
I moved the normal Recycle Bin folder to the root of each hard drive, then deleted the $RECYCLE.BIN folder.
Reboot to just in case and everything is back to normal.
Of course the question remains on HOW this problem happened.
Recycle bins can get corrupted for many reasons, fortunately, as you have found, deleting it through Windows and rebooting, allows it to reinstall again.
Now you can get busy filling it up again!!
[?] Now you can get busy filling it up again!!
Hee, hee. Indeed!
Thanks for sharing your solution here for others to find!