How to empty your Recycle Bin. When you delete old files this serves two purposes: it clears useless files away so you don't confuse them with useful files, and it reclaims the disk space they occupy. The first purpose is served by deleting a file--once it's in the Recycle Bin, you aren't going to open it or work on it by mistake. But all files in the Recycle Bin still takes up hard drive space: The space isn't reclaimed until the Windows Recycle Bin is emptied.
How to empty the Recycle your Bin;
* Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop. Choose Empty Recycle Bin from the shortcut menu. A dialog box asks you to confirm your choice. then Click Yes.
* To purge selected files or folders from the Recycle Bin without completely emptying it, open the Recycle Bin folder and delete the files in the usual way. Objects deleted from an ordinary folder on a hard drive are sent to the Recycle Bin, but objects deleted from the Recycle Bin are really deleted.
To purge only those objects that have been in Windows Recycle Bin a long time:
* Open the Windows Recycle Bin. If the window is not already in Details view, choose View> Details.
* Click the Date Deleted header to put the objects in order of date. Use the enclosing-rectangle method to select all the objects deleted prior to a certain date.
* Click the Delete button on the toolbar, or press the DELETE key on the keyboard.
When the dialog box appears, asking whether you really want to delete these objects, click Yes.
