emptying recycle bin

[ghostmachine]

hi
i have a 6GB worth of files in the recycling bin and when i
try to clear the recycle bin, it takes a long time ( in terms of hours)
and i can still see the "animation" showing deletion at the time of this writing
Is this normal or is Windows hung? btw, the computer also becomes sluggish.
thanks

[gore]

Ummmm.... Maybe it's because you're deleting something the size of most HDs when Windows was written?

[SirSub]

Depends on the specs of your computer. If you're running anything at least @ 1.5 ghtz + 256mb of Ram then it shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Although, if you are on an older pc, then yea, hanging is an inevitable occurence. My advice is to just open up the Bin, and delete a few hundred megs(or folders) at a time.

[gore]

Or quit being a wuss and open a DOS prompt.

[vanman]

6Gig in the recycle bin????At 10 % of the usual hdd size that would mean something in the region of a 60gig...I think you can definitely make it about 2% ..1,2gig which would stop it from getting that fulland I think it is more than enough..Just decide what is really needed and what not and permanently get rid of it(remember to uninstall first and then delete whatever is left in the directory..)

cheers
vanman

[nihil]

ghostmachine

Like the others, I find 6GIGABYTES in the recycle bin a little excessive. I guess you must be handling audio/video or photo manipulation files?

A couple of ideas that might work for you:

1. You can turn off the recycle bin. OK if you make a mistake you will have to use file recovery software and pretty quickly or the space will be overwritten.

2. At least boot into SAFE MODE and defragment your HDD before trying to empty the recycle bin. If your HDD is badly fragmented those files will be all over the place, and it will take a long time to find and delete them.

I have some questions:

1. What are your hardware specifications?
2. What operating system?
3. What % free space on the HDD? (you should not let that fall below 20%)

[the_JinX]

A question I'm missing from the list allready asked.
Is the OS windows, and if so is the filesystem FAT(32) or NTFS ?


Just a little side note to nihil
Wouldn't defragmenting the hd and then removing the files be even more time consuming ?

[nihil]

the_JinX

I hear what you are saying but would still go for it. If his recycle bin is all over the place it will take a long time to empty. All it does is mark tha space as available..............it doesn't actually delete anything?

Defragmenting is a lot faster, as the program is designed to hunt for and consolidate fragmented files. Emptying the recycle bin is not. With consolidated files it will only take minutes.

We need to know more about his hardware and operating system?