Recycle Bin Folder | Everything You Need to Know About the $RECYCLE.BIN Folder

We often see the $recycle.bin folder on the C drive or external hard drive. So, what is the $recycle.bin folder? Can we delete $recycle.bin folder? Many users want to remove this folder but worry that it may cause serious impacts on their computer.

On this page, we will delve into the details of the $Recycle.Bin folder. Let's get started.

What is the $RECYCLE.BIN folder (on an external hard drive)?

The $Recycle.Bin folder is an essential hidden system folder that is usually located at the root directory of a specific drive on your internal or external hard disk. $Recycle.Bin is a link folder for the System Recycling Bin on each hard drive, which stores files or folders deleted from the hard drive. It's particularly useful for recovering accidentally deleted files from the Recycle Bin in Windows 10, 8, or 7.

Is the RECYCLE.BIN folder a virus?

The $Recycle.Bin folder is a normal system folder and not a virus. There's no need to delete it. If you don't want to see it, you can check the option "Hide protected operating system files" in the Folder Options.

Where is the $RECYCLE.BIN folder in Windows 10?

The $Recycle.Bin is a default hidden system folder that exists in the root directory of each partition. You need to have your computer show hidden files in order to see it.

How to Show Hidden $RECYCLE.BIN Folders in Windows Explorer

Step 1. Press Win + E on your keyboard to open File Explorer on your computer. Click the "View" tab in the top toolbar.

Step 2: Click on “Options,” and then click on “Change folder and search options.”

Click the “View” tab.

Step 3: Click the “View” tab. Scroll down to “Advanced settings,” check “Show hidden files, folders, and drives,” and uncheck “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).”

Click “Apply” and then “OK” to save the changes. Afterwards, all the hidden Recycle Bin folders/files with the +H and +S attributes should show up.

After you set it, the location of the $Recycle.Bin folder is C:\$Recycle.Bin or D:\$Recycle.Bin, and so on.

Can I delete the $RECYCLE.BIN folder?

$Recycle.Bin is a protected system folder. If you're logged in as an administrator, or doing this from a Linux Live CD, you can delete the entire $Recycle.Bin folder, but Windows will simply recreate it the next time you delete something on that drive. So, it's not really possible to get rid of it.

If you find that the $Recycle.Bin folder on a particular drive is taking up a lot of space, it means that the Recycling Bin contains a lot of deleted files.

You can open the $Recycle.Bin folder, click on the Recycle Bin, select the unnecessary files, and then delete them from the Recycle Bin to free up disk space.

Another way to reduce the size of $Recycle.Bin is to right-click the Recycle Bin, choose Properties, and then select “Don't move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted.”

Recover Deleted Files from $RECYCLE.BIN Folder in Windows 10

When you delete a file from the Recycle Bin, it's permanently removed from your computer. Likewise, if you delete files from the $Recycle.Bin folder on any drive, the files will be gone and you won't be able to find them.

If you emptied the Recycle Bin by accident, can you still recover the files? Don't worry. You can use a professional data recovery tool like Data Recovery Wizard to easily get back lost photos, videos, documents, emails, and hundreds of other file types.

Here are the steps to recover permanently deleted files from the Recycle Bin using a data recovery program:

Step 1. To recover files from the Empty Recycle Bin on Windows 11/10/8/7 specifically, hover the mouse pointer over the 'Location' section and click on 'Recycle Bin.'

Select the Recycle Bin for scanning

Step 2: The tool will immediately start a quick scan to find all the deleted files, followed by a deep scan to look for more lost files. Once the scanning is finished, you can use the "Filter" option to choose a specific file type, such as images, Word documents, videos, and so on.

Step 3: After finding the file you want to recover, you can preview it by double-clicking. Then select the target files and click " Recover ". It's recommended to save the recovered files on a different disk partition or external USB drive to avoid overwriting your data.

Conclusions

This guide will delve into all the essential aspects of the $recycle.bin folder, including what the $recycle.bin folder is, whether the $recycle.bin folder is a virus, and if you can delete the $recycle.bin folder.

The Recycle Bin saves all deleted files and folders, giving you the chance to recover accidentally erased data. You can empty the Recycle Bin in a few different ways to free up space. However, before you clear out the Recycle Bin or $Recycle.Bin folder, make sure that you don't need any of the files. If you emptied the Recycle Bin with important files inside, stop using your computer immediately and use a file recovery tool to restore them efficiently.