Recycle Bin (Windows)

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In the Microsoft Windows operating systems, the Recycle Bin is a holding area for files and folders that are held before final deletion from a storage device.

Recycle Bin in Windows Vista.

1 General
2 Physical storage locations
3 Deleting files
4 How the Windows Recycle Bin works
5 Known issues
6 See also
7 References
8 Resources

[edit] General

Microsoft introduced the Recycle Bin in the Windows 95 operating system. The Recycle Bin keeps files that have been deleted, whether accidentally or intentionally. Users can review the contents of the Recycle Bin before deleting the items permanently. In previous Windows operating systems and in MS-DOS, undeletion was the only way to recover accidentally deleted files. The Recycle Bin holds data that not only lists deleted files, but also the date, time and the path of those files. The Recycle Bin is opened like an ordinary Windows Explorer folder and the files are viewed similarly. Deleted files may be removed from the Recycle Bin by restoring them with a command, or by deleting them permanently.

The Recycle Bin's icon indicates whether there are items in the Recycle Bin. If there are no files or folders in the Recycle Bin, then the icon resembles an empty wastepaper basket. Otherwise if there are files and/or folders the icon resembles a full wastepaper basket.

Prior to Windows Vista, the default configuration of the Recycle Bin was to hold 10% of the total capacity of the host hard disk drive. For example, on a hard drive with a capacity of 20 gigabytes, the Recycle Bin will hold up to 2 gigabytes. If the Recycle Bin fills up to maximum capacity, the oldest files will be deleted in order to accommodate the newly deleted files. If a file is too large for the Recycle Bin, the user will be prompted to permanently delete the file instead. The maximum possible size of the Recycle Bin is 3.99 gigabytes in all versions of Windows except Vista. In Vista, the maximum is 10% for drives up to 40GB. Above that, the maximum is 4GB plus 5% of the capacity above 40GB.^[1]

Similar recycle bin features exist in other operating systems under various names. For example in Apple's Mac OS and various Linux distributions, it is named 'Trash'. A 'Trash' folder was a feature of the Macintosh OS since the beginning. It is believed that the recycle bin was first invented by Xerox PARC^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Physical storage locations

The actual location of the Recycle Bin varies depending on the operating system and filesystem. On the older FAT filesystems (typically Windows 98 and prior), it is located in Drive:\RECYCLED. In the NTFS filesystem (Windows 2000, XP, NT) it can be found in Drive:\RECYCLER, with the exception of Windows Vista which stores it in the Drive:\$Recycle.Bin folder. [1]

The Recycle Bin can be accessed via the desktop (In fact it is the only icon shown by default on the Windows XP desktop) or Windows Explorer. The Recycle Bin, when accessed from the desktop, has different options and information than what Windows Explorer normally would have as seen from the physical location. In an NTFS environment, users cannot see deleted files in the Recycle Bin of other users.

[edit] Deleting files

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Files are moved to the Recycle Bin in a number of ways:

By right-clicking on a file and selecting delete from the menu
Selecting the file and pressing the delete key
Selecting delete from the side menu in Windows XP
Selecting the file and choosing delete from the File menu (in Windows XP Explorer)
From a context menu command or some other function in a software application (usually configurable)
By dragging and dropping a file into the Recycle Bin icon

To delete a file bypassing the Recycle Bin (for immediate deletion), press and hold the SHIFT key while deleting the file. This deletes the file without sending it to the Recycle Bin.

[edit] How the Windows Recycle Bin works

Files stored in the Recycle Bin in its physical location are renamed as Dxy.ext where x represents the drive name such as "c", "d" and so on, and a sequential number starting at 0 and ext being the file's original file name extension. The file names are kept as is when viewed from the main Recycle Bin. A hidden file is created, without an extension, called "info2" ("info" in Windows 95). This file stores the original files' paths and file names so when the file is removed from the Recycle Bin and returned to its original directory, the original file name is kept as is. When the file is "deleted" the space on the disk is designated to be erased over by whatever files then are saved on the disk. For instance, if you have a picture deleted on the recycling bin, it is still physically stored on the disk until other data is written over it. In other words, the data are not erased, but the address marking the data is.

[edit] Known issues

The Recycle Bin only stores files deleted from hard drives, not from removable media, such as SD cards and floppy disks.

Having a big disk and full Recycle Bin can considerably slow down deleting files. This can be resolved by emptying the Recycle Bin.

In versions prior to Windows Vista, the Recycle Bin icon cannot be deleted from the desktop like other icons. Deleting a registry key from the Windows Registry resolves this issue. The key varies with the version of the operating system. In Windows XP and later, the Recycle Bin and other special icons can be hidden by options in the Display Properties control.

If the Recycle Bin icon has been deleted from the desktop screen, the following actions can restore it (in Windows Vista ) - clicking: Right click->Personalization->and then click "change desktop icons" from the left-hand column at the top. From there just check Recycle Bin and click OK.

The procedure for restoring the Recycle Bin icon in Windows XP is different, and more complicated. See a writeup in this Microsoft Support document