Managing a recycle bin on an external drive

Hi,

Your external hard drive has its own recycle bin folder where the deleted files from it are stored. In order to delete those deleted files, we need to access first the recycle bin folder of the external hard drive. Follow these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. At the top menu, click View.
3. On the right pane, click Options > Change folder and search options.
4. In the Folder options window, click the View tab.
5. Under the Advanced settings, tick or select Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
6. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files.
7. Click Apply, then OK.

Once saved, try to access your external hard drive. Its recycle bin should now be visible. You may then open the recycle bin folder and delete the files inside it.

Let us know if you need further help.

Regards.

Hi,

Your external hard drive has its own recycle bin folder where the deleted files from it are stored. In order to delete those deleted files, we need to access first the recycle bin folder of the external hard drive. Follow these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. At the top menu, click View.
3. On the right pane, click Options > Change folder and search options.
4. In the Folder options window, click the View tab.
5. Under the Advanced settings, tick or select Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
6. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files.
7. Click Apply, then OK.

Once saved, try to access your external hard drive. Its recycle bin should now be visible. You may then open the recycle bin folder and delete the files inside it.

Let us know if you need further help.

Regards.

Hi

As I said I know how to do this, but would rather not have to do it.

Plus the deleting part is very onerous as I have to (in no particular order) change the access from 'read only', log in as the administrator, turn off the application that is using the data, then I can delete. Then I have to reset all the settings, as I want the application (File History) on and I don't want to see protected operating system files.

So yes, I am afraid I do need further help, please

Thanks for the feedback. Is your external hard drive detected as a local drive? If it's detected as a local drive, you may be able to run a disk cleanup to clear the deleted files on your recycle bin. Just right-click the specific drive, then click Properties > Disk Cleanup. Once in the Disk Cleanup window, check Recycle Bin in the Files to delete, then click OK. Please see the photos below:

Let us know if you need further information.

Regards.

Thanks for the feedback. Is your external hard drive detected as a local drive? If it's detected as a local drive, you may be able to run a disk cleanup to clear the deleted files on your recycle bin. Just right-click the specific drive, then click Properties > Disk Cleanup. Once in the Disk Cleanup window, check Recycle Bin in the Files to delete, then click OK. Please see the photos below:

      

Let us know if you need further information.

Regards.

Hello

The drive does show in the system cleanup app, but shows the recycle bin as empty. Hence my original question: is there a way of configuring a recycle bin on my hard drive so I can delete the files in the $recycle.bin folder.

Since the disk cleanup shows the recycle bin is empty, there's a possibility that the deleted files are no longer available and that the bin it is really empty. One way to verify that is by unhiding the system files and manually check the deleted items in the external hard drive's recycle bin.

With regard to the option shown in the photo below, the changes will only apply to the deleted files in that specific drive that you modified.