Cant view deleted files in Windows 10 Recycle bin

Agh55 · 08 Jul 2018

Hi, I recently fitted an SSD for the main operating system and important files. The Hard-drive which had the operating system is now used as a second drive (E Drive). I never deleted the operating system but use the drive to store folders and files. I have discovered the recyle bin on this 2nd drive has approx 300 files in it but I cant view them.

I have enabled the following;
Hidden items, File name extensions, Item check boxes and show hidden files, folders and drives. How can i view these files, also when I delete a file from the secondary drive, should it go to the SSD which is now the
C drive.

dalchina · 08 Jul 2018

Hi, having 2 OS's on 2 separate drives can be something of a recipe for confusing Windows. I can't recommend it. Further, it could be argued that you are legitimately only able to have Windows installed once according to your license terms.

Agh55 · 08 Jul 2018

dalchina, thanks for the prompt response, I have always meant to delete the operating system from the drive but never got round to it. I will now delete the necessary files, but before taking this action, is there anyway I can see what is in the re-cycling bin.

dalchina · 08 Jul 2018

You may be able to do so from outside Windows- with Windows not running.
- you could boot to a command prompt if familiar with that
- you could use a boot disk such as Kyhi's, from the top of the Software and Apps section here.

You should do more than deleting files- you should format the disk.

Ztruker · 08 Jul 2018

Normally you can't view files in the recycle bin, only see what they are called, original location, date deleted and size. To look at them you have to restore them first. Dalchina's suggestion may work though. Give it a try and let us know.

Bree · 08 Jul 2018

dalchina said:

You may be able to do so from outside Windows- with Windows not running....

Ztruker said:

Normally you can't view files in the recycle bin, only see what they are called, original location, date deleted and size...

An added complication is that there isn't just one big recycle bin. Actually each user account has their own recycle bin identifies by an SID. When you click on 'Recycle bin' you can only see the contents of your own bin, you are denied access to the others.

Cant view deleted files in Windows 10 Recycle bin-recycle-bin-structure.png

Worse still, as you no longer have the accounts that had access to the old drive's recycle bin none of them are accessible. There are however 3rd-party tools that can list the contents of all the recycle bins. Typically these are used for forensic analysis.

Analysis of Windows recycle bin is usually carried out during Windows computer forensics. Rifiuti2 can extract file deletion time, original path and size of deleted files and whether the deleted files have been moved out from the recycle bin since they are trashed.

Rifiuti2

Agh55 · 09 Jul 2018

Hi, I really appreciate all the replies, I'm busy offloading all my files before I take the route of formatting the hard drive. I thought it was just a matter of deleting windows files. To format a drive, I assume you right click the drive and pick the format option.

Berton · 09 Jul 2018

To format a drive, I assume you right click the drive and pick the format option.

No, can't do anything to kill the Operating System while it is running, would need to boot to external media like a DVD or a USB drive with the install files on it first. For cleaning up a drive I like either a bootable GPARTED CD or a bootable Linux LiveDVD with GPARTED on it to wipe drives clean/delete partitions.

Agh55 · 10 Jul 2018

Thanks again for this advise, I wouldn't know how to do what you advise, are there any videos I could watch which details this procedure. I now relaise i have 4 additional hard-drives which are in caddys which have the operating systems still installed.

Berton · 10 Jul 2018

youtube create bootable linux dvd at DuckDuckGo

The process should work with any version of Linux, I use Linux Mint as it is pretty close to Windows.