PowerShell Recycling bin size Get-ChildItem issues

Im a bit lost. Been working on a script to check the size of the C and if less then 20 Gig, notify me and get usual suspect folder sizes. Been using Get-ChildItem for Deskp, Docs, Music, etc. but having issues with the bin.

When I run,

    Get-ChildItem C:\ -Hidden -force

Get-ChildItem C results w/ -hidden

but $Recycle.Bin and several other seem to not show file size. Had seen several long codes that people have made on gethub but there must be a sorter way.

Also when I run,

Get-ChildItem C:\$RECYCLE.BIN

PS can't find the path. I take it the $ makes it a variable and don't want to change each user's bin name as a work around.

Solution 1:

the following will get the sum of the .Length properties of the files in the recycle bin ...

(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath 'C:\$Recycle.Bin' -File -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
    Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum
 

output [in bytes, on my system, today] = 249852365

what it does ...

• grabs the files from the recycle bin
  the single quotes around the path name prevent PoSh from trying to expand the $Recycle. [grin]
• the Measure-Object grabs all the .Length properties & sums them
• the final .Sum grabs just that value from the output of M-O