Unable to Empty Recycle Bin

Unable to Empty Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin on one of my XP machines cannot be emptied. The error message is "Error, cannot delete file." Inside the recycle bin are many nested empty folders created by an errant script. Sending the folders to the recycle bin took several hours. And attempting to empty the bin takes a long time and eventually produces the error and causes explorer.exe to consume and not release ram and eventually crash. Deleting c:\recycler then attempting to empty it does not work. I need to know if there a way at a lower level to empty it. My last resort will be a backup(minus the bin) and re-format.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 271

Total answers/comments: 4

Comments display order:

Guest [Entry]

"Start - Run - enter cmd for the command prompt

On the prompt enter cd\ to go back to the c:> prompt

Here type rmdir recycler /s confirm and you should be all set"

Guest [Entry]

It sounds like the path is too long due to the nesting. When I encounter this problem on our file server (for nested folders) I start with the top level folder and rename it to "1" (without the quotes). I then try to delete it and if it's a no go I move to the next folder inside the top level folder and do the same thing. I repeat as neccessarry until I'm able to delete it. renaming the folders to "1" essentially shortens the path by however many characters the original folder name was (-1).

Guest [Entry]

Sometimes disk errors are the cause of not being able to move/delete files, found out what drive the problematic files are on and run a checkdisk with the fix option set to fix any MFT and other issues.

Guest [Entry]

Reboot your computer in safe mode and then try to empty your recycle bin.