Hi. Each time I run CCleaner, it reports that some 700+ files were deleted from the System Recycle Bin. But there are no files in the Recycle Bin. I've looked at the hidden $Recycle system folders and they are empty. Windows Disk Clean reports nothing in the Recycle Bin. Where is CCleaner getting this information on the Recycle Bin? Thanks. See attached. ~mark
You have a corrupted Recycle Bin, most people get one at some time - it's fairly common and easy to fix.
What happens is that Windows throws a wobbly and is remembering/reporting files that have already been cleared as being in the the bin even though they are not there anymore .
It's a long standing bug in Windows and has been happening for years. There are various things that can cause it to start.
Many people have a corrupted bin but don't even notice because (most of the time) it looks like it's acting as it should, it's only when you look deeper that you can see there's something not right.
And as I say it's easy to fix it; See here for how to do that:
I had the same problem and the suggested fix worked great, thanks. But did I just get 1.5gb of space back on my computer (which was the files that CCleaner were reporting removed each time), or was it just the list of files that was corrupt?
it's just that one particular list for what's in the bin that for some reason Windows stops clearing when you empty the bin, so it just keeps growing longer.
That list itself will take very, very, little space however long it gets.
The rest of File Explorer isn't affected by it, which is why when you open the bin it shows correctly as being empty.
I guess that's why Microspft have never bothered to fix it - even though it's known to have been happening for years it doesn't really affect anything,