Recycle Bin - Deleting an item returning 'Folder Access Denied'

Hi,

I am trying to delete a file from one of my user's PC's and I keep getting the below message returned:



I have referenced this thread already -> Recycle Bin Corrupted - Cannot Delete File or Folder

Method 1 returns no results - when I actually navigate to c:\$recycle.bin it shows as empty, and there are no other drives I cannot locate the file in (show hidden files is selected)
Method 2 - I cannot see the hidden $recycle.bin folder in the C drive with hidden files ticked on.

What I have tried:
- I have tried running the recycle bin as an administrator
- Tried running cmd as admin to clear the recycle bin
- Tried running CCleaner to clear the recycle bin
- Tried restoring the file in question (won't restore)

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Thankyou!

Welcome to TenForums @AJWtechit

That folder is very old, it says it dates from 2012, probably was a left-over from a previous system.

Ownership may be the problem, the owner account most probably doesn't exist now. Try restoring it, take ownership, then try deleting it again. edit: on re-reading your post, I see you can't restore it

AJWtechit said:

Method 2 - I cannot see the hidden $recycle.bin folder in the C drive with hidden files ticked on.

$RECYCLE.BIN is not just Hidden, it's also a System file. Make sure you remembered to....

B) Uncheck Hide protected operating system files.

Hi Bree - Thanks for the reply,

Unchecked hide protected operating system files allowed me to view and delete the recycle bin from the C drive,

However when windows restored the recycle bin it again had the folder/file straight back in there - very strange!

How did you delete it? With rmdir /q /s C:\$recycle.bin ?

Do you have any other partitions/drives? You need to delete all $recycle.bin folders not just C:

Hi,

Yes I have tried the rmdir /q /s C:\$recycle.bin, run with elevated command,

Below are the partitions as per the disk management:



I'm right in saying the only place it is possible to delete is on the C drive?

Bree said:

Welcome to TenForums @AJWtechit

That folder is very old, it says it dates from 2012, probably was a left-over from a previous system.

Ownership may be the problem, the owner account most probably doesn't exist now. Try restoring it, take ownership, then try deleting it again. edit: on re-reading your post, I see you can't restore it

You were pretty much there Bree! The user in question was part of an active directory,

The user's profile on the server was not set to have full control of the directory in which the recycle bin could not be deleted, look as though the files were left over from a previous system/system upgrade,

Thanks

Ah, an AD domain, that would explain it. :)

Glad to have helped point you to the answer. Thanks for coming back with an update, you could mark the thread 'Solved' now.