How To Unfreeze A Windows Recycle Bin That Pauses When You Try To Empty It

This is a quick tip for anyone that encounters annoying pausing or freezing when attempting to empty the Windows Recycle Bin.

The #1 reason why the Recycle Bin pauses when going to empty it is probably because you have an external hard drive connected to your computer. When the external drive isn’t in use (even if powered and connected), Windows will spin down the drive until you request something from it. The pausing is the wait time for the drive to spin up.

For example, I have an external HDD connected via USB and purposely have the Recycle Bin disabled for that drive because the only one I care about is my primary drive.

Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties.

If you see an external drive in the list, click it once to highlight, and select “Don’t move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediaetly when deleted.”, like this:

recyclebinproperties

What this will do is still keep the Recycle Bin enabled for drive C, but not for the external drive.

All Recycle Bin pausing on attempt to clear it should go away completely at that point.

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