C Drive full, can't empty recycle bin

heathen777 said:

How do I free up this space?

Welcome to Ten Forums.


When you empty the Recycle bin you are only emptying files deleted by the account you are signed in with. Files that were deleted by another account can only be seen or emptied when signed in with that account.

Probably the easiest way to clear the Recycle bin of all files from all accounts is to turn off the Recycle bin for C:, delete the hidden folder C:\$RECYCLE.BIN then turn back on the Recycle bin.

Right-click on Recycle bin in the navigation pane on the left of File Explorer and select Properties..



If you don't see Recycle Bin there, tick 'Show all folders' in File Explorer's Options.



Then select the C: drive and click 'Don't move files to the Recycle Bin....'.



You can now delete C:\$RECYCLE.BIN. When you turn back on the Recycle Bin a new empty one will be created.

Goto setting system storage that will tell you run that to get rid of the rubbish (12gig free isnts critical)

A dangerous operation with deleting is right-clicking and holding down the Shift key to get a Permanent deletion, same for press the Del/Delete key. BUT it prevents getting the files back, usually requires third-party software for recovery and even then may be hit or miss as to whether it is successful. In the 'olden' days of DOS only the first letter of a file was changed and the space on the drive marked as available for future use, better chance to get a file back if NOTHING else was written to the drive. As mentioned having 12GB free usually isn't critical but conventional wisdom suggests having between 10% and 20% of the total drive size as free space, I go with 20%. Some programs need free space or even a TEMP folder for their operating space.

You can delete the contents of any recycle bin using TreeSize Free in admin mode.

Steve C said:

You can delete the contents of any recycle bin using TreeSize Free in andmin mode.

As simple as you said :)