How to Empty the Recycle Bin in Windows

When using Windows to delete items or files in your computer to create more space in your hard drive, the files are not actually deleted. Your files are temporarily stored by the recycle bin, but if you go further to empty the recycle bin, the files ceases to exist in the recycle bin. Also the recycle bin utilizes a certain amount of its space to store deleted content. When this space is limited, old files are deleted to create room for new ones. That is why you may find your file missing in the recycle even if you never emptied it.

Part 1: How to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows

Step 1 Right click on your recycle bin

Select the recycle bin on your windows desktop and right click on it. Your screen will display a dialogue box like this

empty recycle bin

Step 2 Select empty recycle bin

From the dialogue box on the right hand side of the recycle bin, choose empty recycle bin.

recycle bin

Step 3 Empty the Recycle Bin

From the delete multiple items dialogue box, confirm by clicking YES. You will see a progress dialogue box showing the ongoing deletion process. Items in your recycle bin will disappear one by one. This will only take a few minutes given the number of items in your recycle bin.

Note that you can still retrieve your files after the recycle bin has completed deleting them permanently.

Part 2: How to Recover Files from Emptied Recycle Bin

To retrieve all files, which you had permanently deleted from the recycle bin, you require effective file recovery software.Wondershare Data Recoveryis one of the best data recovery tools I know. It also allows you to recovers others files which were previously formatted or lost from the computed due to corrupt system and other removable devices like digital cameras, memory cards and flash disks.

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  • Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely and completely.
  • Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera and camcorders.
  • Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.
  • Preview before recovery allows you to make a selective recovery.
  • Supported OS: Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista, Mac OS X (Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8, 10.9, 10.10 Yosemite, 10.10, 10.11 El Capitan, 10.12 Sierra) on iMac, MacBook, Mac Pro etc.
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Download your copy of Wondershare Data Recovery for windows, install and run it on your computer. Follow the next steps to recovering deleted files from empty recycle bin. More importantly, DO NOT install this software on the disk where files and data where you can lose.

Step 1 Choose the file type to be recovered

Select file types which you want the program to retrieve. You can select the option "All File Types" to start.

recycle bin recovery

Step 2 Select where you lost your files

Identify the location where you lost your files. Select the option "Recycle Bin" to recovering deleted files from recycle bin.

recover deleted files from recycle bin

Step 3 Deep Scan Recycle Bin

You will need deep scan the empty recycle bin, if the quikc scan can't not find yout deleted files. With deep scan will deep search more files from recycle bin but it will take more time.

deep scan recycle bin

Step 4 Recovering your lost files

If you have selected All files in the previous in step 2, the retrieved files will be shown in file categories like archives, data base, graphics, email, video, audio and the like. These file categories are recovered after previewing. For PPT, RAR, Excel, PDF and photos including and not limited to JPG, PNG and TIF are previewed prior recovery process.

recover deleted files

All You Need to Know About Recycle Bins:

Recycle bins are just like any other trash collection bins you can think of. However this kind of bin is unique since it is digitalized and whatever files trashed can be restored. Occasionally, when the recycle bin is accidentally emptied, the items can be recovered using the best data recovery tool. Also due to the limited space in the recycle bin, it losses old trashed files when new files are added. Never panic when your files are lost, they can still be recovered.

When the recycle bin does not appear on your desktop, it means that the icon is hidden. It is easy to restore it back to the desktop without difficulty. The thing is you don’t need to be computer expert to make your recycle bin reappear. Follow the correct steps and be sure the recycle bin icon will show on your screen.

You can also change the recycle bin icon, if you don’t like the current image. Change your recycle bin icon today.

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