Fine-tune the Windows 2000 Professional Recycle Bin

by Jim Boyce | Oct 23, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Jim Boyce, Recycle Bin, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows, Windows 2000 Professional Tips Newsletter

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Takeaway: Did you know that when your Windows 2000 Professional's Recycle Bin gets to a certain point, Windows starts deleting the files for good rather than allowing you to permanently delete files on your own? Here's how to clean up the Recycle Bin.

You undoubtedly know that Windows 2000 Professional uses the Recycle Bin as a temporary storage location for deleted files and folders, giving you the opportunity to restore those folders and files. Once the items are deleted from the Recycle Bin, however, they are gone for good unless you use a third-party recovery tool to bring them back.

Windows 2000 sets aside a certain percentage of your hard disk for the Recycle Bin. When the Recycle Bin reaches its allocated capacity, Windows 2000 starts deleting files rather than placing them in the Recycle Bin (without warning). Therefore, if you keep a lot of files in the Recycle Bin, you might need to increase the amount of space allocated to it. Or, if you seldom use the Recycle Bin and your system is running low on disk space, you might want to decrease the amount of space allocated to the Recycle Bin or disable it altogether. A third possibility is to allocate different percentages on different drives.

By default, Windows 2000 allocates the same percentage of space to the Recycle Bin on each drive, but you can configure them separately, if needed.

Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop and choose Properties.
Select Configure Drives Independently and then use the slider to set the percentage for the selected drive.
Click the next drive's tab and set its percentage.
Repeat the process for all drives in the system and then click OK.

If you prefer to disable the Recycle Bin and delete files immediately, open the Recycle Bin Properties and select the Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin option. To bypass the Recycle Bin for selected files without disabling it, hold down [Shift] when you press [Delete] to delete an item.