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Recycle Bin malfunction has lead to missing hard drive space

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sophia97

New Member
Jun 3, 2021
2
0
Hi,

I'm using an external hard drive for all of my media storage.

Today I deleted an 8gb folder from it, and when I went to empty the Recycle Bin, nothing happened.

I opened it up and tried to restore the folder, thinking I'll try again, but nothing happened.
I went through the System settings and tried emptying it from there, and again, nothing happened! telecharger sonnerie gratuite

Eventually I unplugged the drive then plugged it in again. The recycle bin was finally empty, but the space hadn't been reclaimed on the drive, and the folder's nowhere to be found.

I've tried scanning the drive, defragging it, disk cleanup and chkdsk and nothing's worked so far...

Space is precious, I need those 8gb!
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If anyone has any ideas I'm open to them.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

I'm using an external hard drive for all of my media storage.

Today I deleted an 8gb folder from it, and when I went to empty the Recycle Bin, nothing happened.

I opened it up and tried to restore the folder, thinking I'll try again, but nothing happened.
I went through the System settings and tried emptying it from there, and again, nothing happened!

Eventually I unplugged the drive then plugged it in again. The recycle bin was finally empty, but the space hadn't been reclaimed on the drive, and the folder's nowhere to be found.

I've tried scanning the drive, defragging it, disk cleanup and chkdsk and nothing's worked so far...

Space is precious, I need those 8gb!

If anyone has any ideas I'm open to them.
Hi,

If am not work when you delete file from external drive is removed automatically, you can't see files in recycle bin.
 
3.99GB is the absolute maximum size of a file or folder than can be stored in the recycle bin. Windows warns you that the erasure will be permanent if that file size is exceeded and asks for confirmation. Didn't you see that pop-up?
So I am confused by your post. Did the 8GB disappear from your hard drive? You could try all kinds of clever moves with disk partition software. Sometimes it "sees" things Windows does not. You know what comes next, move all the files onto another drive, wipe and repartition then format the "mystery" drive. The only other thought I have it could be an anomaly in the USB interface the drive uses. I have encountered that in the past, never really delved into it, just used another controller. If that's the case, move the drive to another enclosure or portable interface and see what happens.
 
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