Fail to erase .mp3 and .url files in Vista recycle bin

Kurt

Kurt

New Member
Almost any time I try to erase my recycle bin in Vista when it contains .mp3 or .url files, I get the following error:
eraser said:
Failed: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2133983695-1040256927-3220978595-1003\$R056QMC.mp3 (Administrator privileges required)
Failed: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2133983695-1040256927-3220978595-1003\$R2CN56D.mp3 (Administrator privileges required)
Click to expand...
The problem is, after this occurs the recycle bin gets screwed up. Right after the erase attempt it appears to be empty, but the .mp3 files are actually still in the folder, as shown here:
Code: 
C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2133983695-1040256927-3220978595-1003>dir /a
 Volume in drive C is Glitch
 Volume Serial Number is 724F-2E8E

 Directory of C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2133983695-1040256927-3220978595-1003

21 Nov 08  23:03    <DIR>          .
21 Nov 08  23:03    <DIR>          ..
19 Nov 08  15:13         5,140,398 $R056QMC.mp3
18 Nov 08  06:05         6,087,017 $R2CN56D.mp3
21 Nov 08  19:13               129 desktop.ini
               3 File(s)     11,227,544 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  30,156,066,816 bytes free
At this point, the files will be in your recycle bin forever. If you sent more files to the recycle bin, they will show up, and you can empty the recycle bin, but the files that eraser tried to erase will never be emptied, and never show up in explorer. The eraser errors will still show up, though, any time in the future you want to erase the recycle bin. Forever. In order to fix this you have to turn off "hide protected operating system files" in folder options, open up the $Recycle.Bin folder and delete the recycle bin inside it in order to fix the problem.

There are sometimes when this doesn't occur. You can tell that it is going to screw up by trying to erase it before you send it to the recycle bin. If you try this and eraser pops up and disappears without any messages but doesn't do anything (doesn't actually erase the file), then it is going to screw up. If you send it to the recycle bin (delete it) at this point, then try to erase the recycle bin, the problem occurs.
 
I think you need to disable Vista’s UAC.
Click to expand...

I have a similar problem with Vista, and it's not UAC because mine has been turned off from day one.

Eraser shows four clips in the bin which it cannot erase: Total 2.84 MB 6 files, 3 folders

Failed: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3233499728-556423929-4120436658-1000\$RQFWC4W\a.wmv
Failed: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3233499728-556423929-4120436658-1000\$RQFWC4W\b.wmv
Failed: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3233499728-556423929-4120436658-1000\$RQFWC4W\d.wmv
Failed: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3233499728-556423929-4120436658-1000\$RQFWC4W\x.wmv

yet when I open $Recycle.Bin after exposing hidden files both baskets are EMPTY and there's nothing for
me to delete. Then running Pandora shows: 2.8 MB S-1-5-21-3233499728-556423929-4120436658-1000, four
728kb files, not overwritten.
I've learned to not erase anything in Recycle Bin.
 
Hi

I found this thread here, which does explain things a little further with something of a workaround.

However it does appear that we will have to wait until Eraser V6 is out and hopefully this problem will be sorted out.

All I can suggest until then is keep checking the release versions of V5 and make sure you have the latest one then pray for a V6 release !

I am sorry I can’t help you more than that.
 
To Overwriter - In your supplied thread:

jabronii on Sat Feb 23, 2008 7:04 pm suggested

. . delete '$Recycle.Bin' then click OK or Allow to all the prompts.
The files that were locked by Recycle bin should now be deleted, you can run the Wipe Free Space option
in Eraser to make sure they are gone from your hard drive.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid to try this maneuver without assurances because Windows warns I may lose the Recycle Bin forever. Scary!
 
Hi GregM

I am sorry I don’t have Vista otherwise I would try it for you.

If you are very worried why not just delete the recycle bin as normal and then wipe the free space every now and then ? At least that should cover you in most situations until Eraser V6 is released.

Please keep checking back, V6 is making steady progress, but I understand it may seem very slow progress when you are waiting for it !
 
If you are very worried why not just delete the recycle bin as normal and then wipe the free space every now and then ? At least that should cover you in most situations until Eraser V6 is released.
Click to expand...

Not worried, the files are relatively innocent; it's really just a technical intrigue, and I'm sure Joel will be interested.

Per Pandora's report the files are not deleted and therefor cannot be overwritten when erasing free space.
So strange - Windows cannot find and list the files that Pandora clearly sees. Pandora is higher tech than Windows !?
 
I've got a few hypotheses which I haven't tried out on the associated Trac ticket. You could test them out and report your findings :)

Joel
 
Thank you Joel and Kurt. I read Joel's Trac ticket and then decided to first try Kurt's solution:
In order to fix this you have to turn off "hide protected operating system files" in folder options, open up the $Recycle.Bin folder and delete the recycle bin(s) inside it in order to fix the problem.
Click to expand...
Ignore the warnings!
Then I sent files to recycle bin and erased with a single pass. Eraser report displayed all files erased, no failures. Pandora concurred. Problem solved.
 
For those that are nervous about the warnings, there is a more manual way of fixing the problem once it occurs. One that doesn't involve deleting the entire recycle bin. So, after the problem shows up and you have files in your recycle bin that Eraser gives errors on - files that don't show up when you open the recycle bin in Explorer, do the following:

  1. First make sure you have emptied your recycle bin, so that it seems empty to Windows Explorer.
  2. Open a cmd window (Click Start, then type 'cmd' in the 'start search' box)
  3. Switch to the drive where the files used to be before you deleted them.
  4. Type 'cd \$recycle.bin'
  5. Type 'dir /a'. You should see something like:
    Code: 
    C:\$Recycle.Bin>dir /a
 Volume in drive C is Glitch
 Volume Serial Number is 724F-2E8E

 Directory of C:\$Recycle.Bin

21 Nov 08  19:08    <DIR>          .
21 Nov 08  19:08    <DIR>          ..
28 Nov 08  09:21    <DIR>          S-1-5-21-2133983695-1040256927-3220978595-1003
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  42,369,150,976 bytes free
  6. That long directory is the actual recycle bin. The numbers will be different for yours. Change directories to it. Just typing 'cd ' and then hitting the TAB button should be good enough. But if that doesn't work, then type 'cd <dirname>'
  7. Type 'dir /a' again. You should see something like:
    Code: 
    C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2133983695-1040256927-3220978595-1003>dir /a
 Volume in drive C is Glitch
 Volume Serial Number is 724F-2E8E

 Directory of C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-2133983695-1040256927-3220978595-1003

28 Nov 08  09:21    <DIR>          .
28 Nov 08  09:21    <DIR>          ..
22 Nov 08  07:54         5,132,990 $R7WH3OQ.wma
21 Nov 08  23:17               129 desktop.ini
               2 File(s)      5,133,119 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  42,368,626,688 bytes free
  8. Of course the files you see will be different, based on what you sent to the recycle bin. What you do now is manually delete each file you see there. Type 'del <file.ext>' for each one.

This is, of course, just a stop-gap measure until Eraser fixes the underlying issue.

Note: The fact that this is possible without elevation proves that the underlying issue is not one of permissions, as the comments in the trac ticket seem to suggest. If it were a permissions issue, you would not be able to delete the files manually without launching cmd.exe as administrator.
 
True, true. But I've never been able to fireup the Permissions dialog to test effective permissions on each object in the directory... I personally think it's quite unlikely that the file entries can't be erased because unlike the Shell, Eraser uses the Kernel to access the folder; which appears to the kernel as a normal directory. File listings are done like cmd's dir command will be done, and so do deletes. What you're doing in cmd is what Eraser does programmatically.. strange.

Joel
 
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