Deleting files or folders by mistake from USB or external hard drive is a situation you want to avoid, as it can be tricky to restore external disks. However, you can add a Recycle Bin folder to any USB drive, external hard drive or even SD card connected to your Windows PC! You just set it once and it will take effect every time.

Worth knowing : It might be a good idea to learn how to encrypt USB drives in Windows to keep your data secure.

Table of contents

• Add a recycle bin to an external disk
• How to manage and disable the recycle bin on an external drive
• Frequently Asked Questions

Add a recycle bin to an external disk

The famous Recycle Bin is the destination for deleting files on a Windows PC. When you delete files at will on your PC, it will move to this system folder so that you can recover if you need it. It turns out that you can also add a Recycle Bin to an external HDD or USB flash drive with registry tricks.

Note : Before adjusting the registry, create a registry backup to ensure that it is safe in case of problems.

1. Open the Run dialog box by pressing Win R.
2. Enter regedit and press Enter to enter the Registry Editor.

3. Navigate to the following path manually, or copy and paste the path into the path bar at the top: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer."

4. If you cannot see the Explorer key (folder), right-click "Policies" and then click "Key->New". Rename the new key to "Explorer".

5. Click any blank space on the right and select "New->DWORD (32-bit) Value".

6. After adding the value, select it and press F2 to rename it to "RecycleBinDrives".
7. Right-click the "RecycleBinDrives" value and select "Modify".

8. In a new window, enter "ffffffff" in the "Value Data" field, select the hexadecimal cardinality, and then click "OK" to save.
9. Restart the device for the modification to take effect. After restarting, every file or folder you delete from the USB drive will be sent to your PC's default recycle bin, and this will automatically apply to any removable disk you connect to. Think of it as extending the Recycle Bin feature to any external drive you connect to.
10. In this example, our USB drive contains a 1.26 GB folder.

11. After deleting the folder, the space continues to be occupied.

12. Check out the Recycle Bin and you can see that the deleted folder is still there. You can recover any deleted files by right-clicking on it and selecting "Recover". Basically, you can delete files from external devices and recover them on your PC.

Tip : Learn how to clean the Windows registry and improve PC performance.

How to manage and disable the recycle bin on an external drive

You can adjust some settings for a better user experience. First, edit the recycle bin space limit on each USB drive. Do this when connecting to an external device. Alternatively, you can rely on Windows' automatic settings that set limits based on disk space.

1. Go to the desktop, right-click the Recycle Bin icon, and select Properties.

2. Select an external drive. You can set a space limit that limits the amount of disk space used to store deleted files, and you can also choose whether to confirm before deletion.

3. By returning to the USB drive in File Explorer, click the three-dot icon at the top, and then "Options" to display the Recycle Bin system folder in the USB drive.

4. Navigate to the View tab, uncheck the Hide Protected Operating System Files setting, and click OK.

5. The Recycle Bin folder will now be visible. Remember that this option will let you see the system folder anywhere (unlike the standard hidden folder), so you may want to disable it if you need it.
6. It is worth noting that opening the Recycle Bin from the USB drive directory will guide you into the main Recycle Bin, not just the deleted files on the USB drive.

7. Finally, if you need to disable the recycle bin of your USB drive, you must return to the Registry Editor and delete the "RecycleBinDrive" value we created earlier. Before this, don't forget to restore any deleted files.

8. Remember that when you delete a folder or file and remove a USB drive from the device, the folder will disappear from the Recycle Bin. However, it will reappear when you reconnect it to your device or any other PC with edited registry.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to recover deleted files?

If you deleted the file by pressing the Del button, you can quickly recover it from the Recycle Bin. However, if you have deleted it permanently, you can use Windows' file recovery software. Note that recovering permanently deleted files from SSDs can be significantly more complicated.

How to permanently delete files on Windows?

You can select a file and press Shift Del to permanently delete any file or folder. However, technically, the file still exists and anyone can recover it using a specific software or tool. To ensure that the files you deleted are completely wiped out, you can use a free tool like Permadelete, which deletes files by rewriting their channels and makes them (at least for individuals) unrecoverable.

How to display the Recycle Bin on the Desktop?

If the Recycle Bin is not visible on the desktop, launch the Settings app by pressing Win I , navigate to "Personalization → Theme → Desktop Icon Settings", and check the "Recycle Bin" option.

Can I delete the Recycle Bin folder completely?

Can't. However, you can right-click on it and select "Properties -> Do not move files to the Recycle Bin, delete files now". This will disable the Recycle Bin feature and make any deletion process permanent. Additionally, you can hide it from the desktop via the desktop icon settings.

Image source: Pexels, Flaticon. All screenshots were taken by Mustafa Ashour.

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