Windows - Can't delete folder from Recycle Bin and it won't restore

Chain of events:

• Empty Recycle Bin silently fails. Tried it repeatedly.

• Selected ranges of items in Recycle Bin and deleted them (some didn't work), narrowing down until only one item was left: a folder called Container.

• Attempting to delete Container, restore it, or Empty Recycle Bin all silently fail: nothing happens, no error message.

• Logging in as Administrator, that user sees a different recycle bin, that doesn't contain Container.

How to delete this folder from the Recycle bin without destabilising the system?

(On Windows Vista.)

Solution 1:

What worked for me was:

• Shift + right click Command Prompt and Run as Administrator.

• cd C:\$Recycle.Bin

• Now, using dir says "File Not Found", but autocompletion still works, so we can find the names of the directories here by typing, for example dir then pressing Tab repeatedly.

• Thanks to this answer, rd /s (remove directory recursively) on each of the folders in the C:\$Recycle.Bin. For me, they have names starting with "S" and followed by numbers and hyphens, like "S-1-2-3-1234567-12344-121212".

• After that, the recycle bin is back to normal and the stuck folder is gone.

This may be related to a path of a file or folder in the Recycle Bin being longer than some limit. Some alternatives are suggested in this answer: (a) dealing with long file names using UNC \\.\... path notation and (b) using RoboCopy.

What was also useful is enabling Windows Explorer to show hidden system files and folders, like C:\$Recycle.Bin (may be called different on different systems, such as "Recycler"), by: pressing Alt to show the menu in Windows Explorer, Tools | Folder Options, View tab, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).

Solution 2:

This trick has worked for me every time without fail. First turn on hidden files and folders. Next go to your System 32 Folder and Highlight the folder so you can see all folders and files within that Folder.

Next locate a file entitled "qedit.dll". First you will have to take ownership of that file so you can temporarily relocate it. Once relocated to a place where it will be unable to interact with the System32 Folder, go to your recycle bin and delete your files noting that this time Windows Explorer will not crash and will allow you to empty your recycle bin. Then simply relocate the "qedit.dll" file back to the System32 folder and your done.

Absolutely guaranteed to work every time!