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Windows 98 recycle-bin error.


HardDriv'n

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I seem to be getting a strange error, or bug, that I noticed when I went to set the bin's properties.

The partition where Win98 is installed is ~40GB in size, but the recycle-bin says there's only 2GB. This seriously limits how much I can delete, before it starts making permanent removals. Incidentally, the properties of the HD's Win98 partition shows the correct amount of space.

Any ideas?

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The only thing I know about the recycle bin is that you need an equal amount of space on the drive to the amount of files in the Recycle Bin in order to delete from there. For example, I had a system where I had 100MB free on C, and had 650MB files in the Recycle Bin. For some reason I could not empty from the Recycle Bin!

I had to restore the files out of the Recycle Bin and then delete them with the DOS prompt.

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Windows 98 SE (98lited), and Windows XP SP3.

Are you using the Windows 95 shell?

No. I did a "Chubby" install, with the Internet Tools (including IE), DirectX, and a few other misc items removed.

The partition has like ~35GB free, and I've set the recycle-bin to the max 2GB (100%) allowed for now.

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Win XP understands Win 9x Recycle Bin, but Win 9x does not understand Win XP Recycle Bin, therefore messing it up. There's no avoiding it. If you have a :puke: Norton Protected Recycle Bin, disable it so it becomes a normal Recycle Bin. Then it's safe to delete it. The downside is you clean the Recycle Bin forever, each time you reboot into Win 9x. So if you're keen on preserving large amounts of deleted files, so that you'd be able to change your mind and recover then next year, this is bad news, I know! Sorry! Assuming all your drives are FAT (either 16 or 32), the best thing to do is to delete the Recycle Bin, before booting Win9x:

Add this to your autoexec.bat (create one if it doesn't already exist):

ATTRIB -R -H -S <drive letter>:\<path>\PAGEFILE.SYS

DEL <drive letter>:\<path>\PAGEFILE.SYS

ATTRIB -R -H -S <drive letter>:\<path>\RECYCLED

DELTREE /Y <drive letter>:\<path>\RECYCLED

Repeat the last two lines as many times as needed to cover all your partitions, since there'll be a RECYCLED folder in each of them.

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OK. So it's simpler. If it's just the Win 98 Recycle Bin that's giving you grief, boot to true DOS and DELTREE it just once. Then reboot and let Win 98 start, and it'll recreate it from scratch. Ususally this is enough to fix any issue with it.

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OK. So it's simpler. If it's just the Win 98 Recycle Bin that's giving you grief, boot to true DOS and DELTREE it just once. Then reboot and let Win 98 start, and it'll recreate it from scratch. Usually this is enough to fix any issue with it.

Doesn't seem to work...

I re-partitioned the space into two parts, and reinstalled Windows 98SE. It still shows the drive space correctly in Windows Explorer, but the recycle bin still shows ~2GB as the drive size. I guess 2GB should be enough space to use (if maxed out to 100%), but I wonder why this is happening. The secondary data partition I had created also shows the same recycle bin space available.

Some type of file system thing? Should I have formatted as FAT, instead of FAT32?

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?Does it allow "resizing it" in the properties?

edit - just some more info -

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_qr.htm

and do a "find" on "recyc" - read a few paragraphs.

edit2 - more info (refers to NT but applies)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171694/en-us

edit3 - Well! Found this -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187188

In addition, "booted" a "Compaq Restore" of 98SE (in VirtualPC) and LO! Recycle Bin reports 1.99gb for C-drive BUT in Explorer it's really 12gb. This "bug" must be some kind of carry-over. :huh::wacko::unsure:

Edited by submix8c
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If it's working OK, you've got nothing to worry. It works well while the conditions are what it expects them to be.

However, if you decide to double-boot with a FAT-32 based NT-family OS (say, 2k, XP or later), it'll complicate the needed deletion of all RECYCLED folders before booting to 9x.

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If it's working OK, you've got nothing to worry. It works well while the conditions are what it expects them to be.

However, if you decide to double-boot with a FAT-32 based NT-family OS (say, 2k, XP or later), it'll complicate the needed deletion of all RECYCLED folders before booting to 9x.

dencorso,

Whew! What a relief, thanks!

--JorgeA

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Did you update IE 5.0 to IE 6.0?

edit3 - Well! Found this -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/187188

In addition, "booted" a "Compaq Restore" of 98SE (in VirtualPC) and LO! Recycle Bin reports 1.99gb for C-drive BUT in Explorer it's really 12gb. This "bug" must be some kind of carry-over. :huh::wacko::unsure:

This seems really much like his problem....

After all, Windows 98 came with IE 4.01 (Full of bugs), while Windows 98 SE came with IE 5.0 (Still buggy...).

Thinking about this... the Windows 95 shell also had this problem (In the "Disk properties" dialog, the pie chart is always wrong if your disk is bigger than 2GB, and the reported free space is also incorrect if you're using EXPLORER.EXE v4.00.950)!

Some type of file system thing? Should I have formatted as FAT, instead of FAT32?

Don't do that - unless you want to leave with the 2GB partition size limit (And with your problem unsolved)!

Edited by sp193
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