How to delete $RECYCLE.BIN folder on external hard disk?

I have a $RECYCLE.BIN folder on my external hard disk that takes up space and contains files that should be deleted permanently. I know that I am allowed to delete this folder, but how do I do that?

• I see the $RECYCLE.BIN folder and its files in Defraggler while it is defragmenting these useless (big) files.
• However, the Windows recycle bin appears to be empty.
• Doing a disk cleanup from the Properties-dialog of the disk shows the recycle bin as containing 0 bytes of data and doesn't remove those files.
• I cannot see (and therefore not delete) this folder in Windows Explorer, not even when I can view hidden files.
• I can't format the external hard disk as it contains lots of files I want to keep.
• It is an NTFS-formatted external platter hard disk of a bit less than 1 TB.

Solution 1:

In Windows Explorer's Folder Options dialog, along with ensuring Show hidden files, folders, and drives is selected, you need to ensure the Hide protected operating system files option is not selected.

This should show you all the Recycle Bin folders/files marked with +H and +S attributes.

You can get rid of the entire $Recycle.Bin folder if you're an admin user or via a Linux LiveCD, but Windows will recreate it once you delete some more files on the same drive.

Solution 2:

The $RECYCLE.BIN directory can be deleted from Windows command line rmdir /q /s C:\$RECYCLE.BIN as described in the first answer to this similar question, although as a system virtual folder care should be taken. Also, it will get recreated upon deletion of files from the drive containing it.