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This question is very similar to the question asked here but there does not seem to be a final answer and since it is an old post I figured I would start a new discussion with my information to see if we can solve it.
We have a shared folder on our Windows 2008 server C:\home$ that contains all of our users My Documents and Desktop Folders, Example: C:\Home$\exampleusername\Desktop and C:\Home$\exampleusername\My Documents.
I used TreeSizeFree to scan the server to see which users were using the most disk space. Doing this I found several users that have the following folder with 50+ GB of data, C:\Home$\exampleusername\My Documents\$RECYCLE.BIN as well as C:\Home$\exampleusername\Desktop\$RECYCLE.BIN. In TreeSizeFree I can see the contents of this folder and see the files that make up the gigs of data but if I open that folder in Windows Explorer there is nothing in it. I have made sure that all hidden files are shown as well as system files but still the folder seems empty. On the users laptop when they look at their recycle bin they had a few small images files but nothing that matches what TreeSizeFree shows. In TreeSizeFree you can right click on the folders in the $RECYCLE.BIN folder and select delete and it will confirm that you want to delete it but after I confirm the delete nothing happens, even after a re-scan.
My questions are
How do I delete the contents of these $RECYCLE.BIN folders? How do I prevent theses files from building up?
BPmoose
Posted 2015-06-08T20:45:30.150
Reputation: 11
1Try WinDirStat and see if you get the same results. – NonSecwitter – 2015-06-08T20:53:31.780
If you get same with WinDirStat id lean toward users using move to trash method of delete rather than a normal delete which would bypass the waste bin (recyle bin) – linuxdev2013 – 2015-06-08T22:57:59.413
Using WinDirStat worked! Thank you both for the suggestion!
I was able to view the same $RECYCLE.BIN folders and delete them using the Delete to Recycle Bin option as well as the Delete forever options.
My only remaining question is how these ghost $RECYCLE.BIN files get created? Any ideas? – BPmoose – 2015-06-10T16:09:45.537