The recycle bin is one of the functions that have been present in the operating system for a long time, and one of those that, even unconsciously, we tend to use more often. Whenever we delete a file from the computer, it is sent to the trash. Until we empty it, if we have sent something to this bin by mistake we can retrieve it without problems. All the data that we move to this bin is stored in a folder called $ RECYCLE.BIN . When emptied, the data in this folder is permanently deleted and converted into free space. However, what if it is not, and this folder still occupies several gigabytes?
This is one of the folders created by Windows to function normally. This directory is located in the root of the hard disk, it is hidden by default and also locked so that we cannot do anything with it. Only “SYSTEM” has permission to interact with this folder. Although we can get to interact with it if we have permissions of Global Team Administrator.
Each hard drive has its own trash folder , and the data we delete is moved to the corresponding folder in each one. If we enter it we can see several files and folders of rare names. These are the files we have deleted.
Why is this folder not always deleted?
Each installation of Windows has its own $ RECYCLE.BIN folder . And in addition the normal thing is that there is only one. However, there may be some reasons why there may be two, or there may simply be data saved in this folder that Windows cannot delete.
For example, if we have two hard drives, we install Windows from scratch in one and the second one has an inherited empty bin, the bin will apparently be empty, but the folder will take up space on our drive. The same can happen if we restore images from hard drives or if we usually do Windows installations and repairs.
Everything you have put in that folder that has not been deleted from the operating system itself will not be deleted when you empty the trash. And it will take up space unless we eliminate it by hand.
In Windows 10 the same thing can happen if, due to bad configuration, we tell OneDrive to synchronize this folder with the cloud.
How to delete the $ RECYCLE.BIN folder if it is not emptied with the trash
The truth is that if you have problems with this folder, solving is not a simple task. Windows will not let us easily interact with this folder. If we try to delete it, the wizard will appear to empty the recycle bin directly.
Nor will it help us to start the computer in Safe Mode. We will still not have sufficient privileges to delete this folder.
In case it has been blocked taking up a lot of space on our hard drive there is a little trick that will allow us to eliminate it. And for this we must use a Linux Live USB .
Using this operating system in Live mode we can access the hard drive that has this folder locked and force its removal. Linux systems are very easy to use, and most of them are fully compatible with the NTFS file system , so we should not have problems doing so.
When we restart Windows, this folder we just deleted will be recreated automatically. But it will be empty by default. Thus we will have released the gigas that was occupied by mistake and from now on everything that goes through the trash will be deleted permanently.
