Recycle Bin is deleting files without asking

Well you can change the the capacity of it. Just right click on the Recycle Bin and choose Properties and on the Global tab set the capacity which is represented in the percentage of the drive.

Also you can have control over each dirve seperately by clicking on the "Configure Drives Independently" and then click on the drives tab and set the capacity there.

use 100% for the maximum size of recycle bin and u will be warned before HDD become full!

I had my recycle bin set at 20% which was 3.72 gig.   I really don't think I ever deleted 3 gig of files.  I have upped it to 100% as gikam suggested.  I will monitor it for the next several days to see if this approach works.  If so, I'll award the points to gikam, but in the mean time I welcome any other suggestions, because as I stated I don't think the recycle bin is hitting the allotted size before emptying.

>>> it would be nice if I knew ahead of time so that
I could delete the files I wanted.


Hey Mach1pro,
You say that half the problem here is that the deletions occur without your intervention.  Be sure to go into RecBin's properties (RC RecBin>Properties) and select "Display Delete Confirmation."  This "specifies whether a confirmation message is displayed when you delete files to prevent you from deleting files in error".

Hope this helps

/EW

EricWestbo
That property was already set.

thanks
waiting for news....

Well folks, the files are still getting deleted even with a setting of 100%.

Any other Ideas?

Well the point of the recycle bin is to hold deleted files but it was not intended to hold those files indefinitely. The point being is the user needs to do periodic cleanup on the Bin. In other words clean the bin out of files that one is sure are no longer going to be needed. For Example I clean out my bin once a month of files that have been in there for over 30 days. If I see a file that is older then that and I am not sure I want to risk loosing it I reinstate back to where I deleted it from and then burn it to a CD for safe keeping.

That's great Crazyone, but in my case the files have not even been in there for a week and they are completely gone. I used the same system that you did on Windows 98 and ME.  I'd like to do the same on 2000.

Hmm I think we may be dealing with a virus or a corrupted system file.

For the virus
www.housecall.antivirus.com

for courrupted system file
Start > Run sfc /scannow

Not for nothing, but we've checked to make sure that the "remove files immediately" checkbox is clear in the recycle bin's properties?  Just trying to go back to basics for a second... this seems like we've overlooked something.

CrazyOne... never heard of a virus that would clear the recBin, but since I'm not omnipotent...  :)  Interested in finding out if that's the issue.

/ew

Eric just trying to eliminate possiblities. You never know what some script kiddies may find as being fun or funny to do these days. :>)

NEW INFORMATION:
If I look at the properties for  C:\Recycled  then it shows 527 MB, 1741files, 33 folders.
So the files may still be in the recycle bin, but aren't visible. Any ideas what may be causing the files to disappear?

I'm still hoping everyone hasn't given up on me and there is a resolution to this.
Here's some more information if anyone can make sense of it.

If I send a file to the recycle bin  eg. Text.htm  and then I go to Dos to look at C:\Recycled, the file is in there with an alias that as the pattern  DC + a number + the file extension. If I go back to the recycle bin and delete the file then go back to a Dos prompt then the file is gone.  Now, the files that have disappeared from the recycle bin are in the named format   DL + a number + the file extension.  Renaming the file does Not make it reappear in the recycle bin. I can however make a copy of the file in a different directory and open it normally.

I'm hoping that this will help some of you gurus come up with something.

Well at this time I am a bit perplexed to say the least. I am trying to think what the root cause is but since I have not experienced the problem I don't know what the cause is. I haven't given up on you. Just it may take me some time checking things out to see if I can duplicate the problem. This may take some time and I may not be able to duplicate the problem but I am going to try. :>)

Okay. I got the problem isolated.
The Recycle bin is emptying out when I run the Subst  command to map my harddrive to itself. I guess that explains the  DC  and DL  prefixes on the deleted files. When I use the Subst  it's usually  Subst L: C:\
So, now does anyone have any bright ideas on a workaround where I can still map a different drive letter to my hard drive without emptying out the recycle bin?

Well I get a DC prefix just doing DIR on C:\Recycle so Subst is not the cause of this. I think the problem you are having is that the Recycle Bin is resident on a per drive basis that can house a Recycle Bin. In other words if I have partitioned my drive as C D E F the all of them will have their own Recycle Bin. So I am guessing that by using the Subst command in a sense you have created a new drive thereby creating a new Recycle Bin for that drive which of course being newly created it would be empty.

From Windows Help
"The Recycle Bin provides a safety net when deleting files or folders in Windows 2000. When you delete any of these items from your hard disk, Windows 2000 places it in the Recycle Bin and the Recycle Bin icon changes from empty to full. Items deleted from a floppy disk or a network drive are permanently deleted and are not sent to the Recycle Bin.

Items in the Recycle Bin remain there until you decide to permanently delete them from your computer. These items still take up hard disk space and can be undeleted or restored back to their original location. When it fills up, Windows 2000 automatically cleans out enough space in the Recycle Bin to accommodate the most recently deleted files and folders.

If you're running low on hard disk space, always remember to empty the Recycle Bin. You can also restrict the size of the Recycle Bin to limit the amount of hard disk space it takes up.

Windows 2000 allocates one Recycle Bin for each partition or hard disk. If your hard disk is partitioned, or if you have more than one hard disk in your computer, you can specify a different size for each Recycle Bin."

By mapping my harddrive back to itself using the syntax
       \\NameOfComputer\NameOfDrive
rather than using the subst command, the problem appears to be fixed.

:>)