Help with Vista: No contents in recycling bin when there is stuff there.

JMJSelect · 11-14-07, 10:46 PM

Whenever there is something in my recycling bin the contents do know show when I open it up. It will show the trash on the desktop icon but nothing once I open it up. If I right click when it's empty I can't click on the empty option but when there is something in it(but not showing any content) I can empty the trash.

This has been a problem for about a month now so I don't think it had anything to do with the recent updates.

Can anyone help me out? Thank you in advance.

AKAJohnDoe · 11-14-07, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by JMJSelect

Whenever there is something in my recycling bin the contents do know show when I open it up. It will show the trash on the desktop icon but nothing once I open it up. If I right click when it's empty I can't click on the empty option but when there is something in it(but not showing any content) I can empty the trash.

This has been a problem for about a month now so I don't think it had anything to do with the recent updates.

Can anyone help me out? Thank you in advance.

Do you by chance have a removable (e.g.: USB) drive? It may be that you deleted something that is not mounted currently.

JMJSelect · 11-14-07, 11:53 PM

No usb drives, thumb drives, and/or sd/mmc cards.

I just did a test. Emptied my recycling bin. Created a text file, enter random text, saved. Deleted. Recycle bin icon changes from empty to full and still no content in the window BUT I KNOW THE TEXT FILE IS IN THERE! AWW! lol.

AKAJohnDoe · 11-15-07, 12:23 AM

Right-click on the desktop icon for the Recycle Bin and choose Properties. Do you have more locations than just the C: drive?

Likewise, if you show hidden and system files you will see a $RECYCLE.BIN in the root of each drive that you can manipulate with Windows Explorer.

JMJSelect · 11-15-07, 12:55 AM

C: and D:. D: being the recovery, it's on a partition on the same hard drive as C:.

It was like this prior to the problemm.

spud42 · 11-15-07, 09:31 AM

have you tried to higlight the contents of the recycle bin? for some reason you might have text and background as the same colour????? have you tried to change how the contents are viewed? icons,list detailed??? never heard of this before.....

just did a google on the problem. no solution but it seems this has happened to others but not only in VISTA but 98SE and ME etc....unfortunately the most common fix was "a reinstall" drastic but effective...

JMJSelect · 11-15-07, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by spud42

unfortunately the most common fix was "a reinstall" drastic but effective...

Yeah this was what I was scared of. LOL well that's windows...

spud42 · 11-16-07, 05:06 AM

well seing as its only a little problem i think i would live with it for a while... maybe when the first service pack comes out it might get fixed.... or someone else might find the solution...

what size is the recycle bin set to? change the size see if something happens... is bypass recycle bin ticked?? keep googleing for an answer ...........