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#1
not getting credit for deleting files
I have an odd problem with a secondary HDD on my PC: Windows doesn't seem to always give me credit for deleting files. Yesterday I was unable to extract a downloaded archive due to lack of space on the disk. I found a subfolder that contained about 15 GB worth of zipped archives. When I tried to delete the archives, I got a prompt with a message like the following:
"Are you sure you want to move this file to the Recycle Bin?"
When I clicked "Yes", I got another popup that says:
"You'll need to provide administrator permission to delete this file" (or folder)
When I clicked "Continue", the files were permanently deleted and didn't go to the Recycle Bin, yet I didn't get any credit for deleting them; the amount of free space shown when I right-clicked on the drive in Windows explorer didn't change from what it was before I deleted the files.
I restarted the computer but that didn't change the amount of free space reported on the drive.
I ran chkdsk but it didn't appear to find any issues:
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> chkdsk d: /f /r /x
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume dismounted. All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Volume label is .
Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
79360 file records processed.
File verification completed.
Phase duration (File record verification): 1.44 seconds.
2409 large file records processed.
Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 0.00 milliseconds.
0 bad file records processed.
Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.20 milliseconds.
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
19113 reparse records processed.
101996 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
Phase duration (Index verification): 11.03 seconds.
0 unindexed files scanned.
Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 37.31 milliseconds.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 1.82 milliseconds.
19113 reparse records processed.
Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 85.79 milliseconds.
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 40.74 milliseconds.
11319 data files processed.
Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 2.72 milliseconds.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
36222912 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Phase duration (USN journal verification): 672.93 milliseconds.
Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
79344 files processed.
File data verification completed.
Phase duration (User file recovery): 2.32 hours.
Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
115747 free clusters processed.
Free space verification is complete.
Phase duration (Free space recovery): 0.00 milliseconds.
Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.
732563967 KB total disk space.
731844912 KB in 65525 files.
52728 KB in 11320 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
203335 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
462992 KB available on disk.
I have since downloaded some test files to various folders on the D: drive (including the one I initially deleted the 15 GB of zipped files from). When I delete them, Windows now moves them to the recycle bin first without an admin prompt, as expected, and when I empty them from the recycle bin the reported disk free space increases by the expected amount. Yet I still never received credit for the original 15 GB of deleted files.
What could be going on here? Why does Windows sometimes require admin permissions to delete files/folders off the D: drive, and why am I sometimes not receiving credit for deleting files from the D: drive?
Note the D: drive is encrypted with Bitlocker and I have reported the issue of requiring admin permissions to delete files/folders here before (with no one knowing what was causing that issue):
all folders on drive marked as "read only"; del requires admin rights
UPDATE
After some additional searching and running the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, I found the following folder on my hard drive:
D:\$RECYCLE.BIN
This file contains all of the files I deleted yesterday but didn't receive credit for. Is this folder different from the Recycle Bin icon that shows up in Windows Explorer? When I click on the Recycle Bin icon the contents are empty, but D:\$RECYCLE.BIN contains lots of stuff. What is going on here?
Last edited by Citizen Snips; 20 Feb 2023 at 14:15.