Windows 10: Disk Cleanup Not Cleaning Ext. HDD Recycle Bin

I ran disk cleanup and selected my external hdd and selected the recycle bin.
After 10 minutes disk cleanup closed. But, the Recycle bin still has the files in it.
I manually cleaned the recycle bin and it took 2 minutes.

Am I missing something with Disk Cleanup??

James

:)

 

Can't Empty Recycle Bin for Second HDD

My recycle bin on the system drive will not empty. When I "open" it, File Exlplorer shows "working on it..." to list files in the recycle bin for 12 - 14 hours before it will show any files. Then, if I select all files to delete, the system churns for
about 4 hours, then the screen goes black for about 6 - 7 hours, then the machine reboots. Recycle bin is still full. If I open, wait the day or so for files to be listed, select to delete one or two files, the churning starts again (100% disk activity)
but the files never delete, simply remain highlighted until I get fed up after a few days and reboot.

I've tried sfc / scannow, I've tried rd /s /q C:\$RECYCLE.BIN, I've tried disk cleanup (which gets stuck on recycle bin for several days) none of which resolve the problem.

• SFC: runs verification to completion, reports "Windows resource protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them...". But of course the referenced log file provides no useful info - just a lot of obscure garbage. (Be so nice if I could
  just search for "failed" or "corrupt" and get right to the faulting files, but this is the MS priesthood we are dealing with...)
  
• rd /s /q: cursor goes to next line on return but the command prompt doesn't show on that line. It will remain in this state for days until I get fed up and reboot or close the window from the task bar or task manager. (Its "X" close gadget is locked out
  of responding to mouse clicks.)
• Disk cleanup: gets stuck scanning the Recycle Bin, and will hang in that scan for days on end until manually cancelled or I reboot.
• Tried other clean-up utilities (CCleaner, McAfee Quick Clean, etc. but all simply hang for many hours /days until again, I get fed up and reboot.

I suspect all third party cleaners just use the same API calls to empty the recycle bin as does Windows so they are running into the same problem. Is there an alternate way to empty the recycle bin without going through the obviously faulty OS "empty" or
"reset" recycle bin commands?

NOTE: when any of these attempts at emptying the recycle bin are going on, the system is bogged down, letters appear on the screen way after I type them, programs take many minutes to open, etc.

 

Can't Empty Recycle Bin for Second HDD

I ran out of space on my second HDD so I was looking at where all the space was being used and I discovered that 40GB + was used by the Recycle Bin. I tried to empty the recycle bin but it will not empty I also tried selecting the files and deleting but
they still won't delete:

A forum post suggested deleting the "$RECYCLE.BIN" from the HDD but I just get "Access is Denied" and "You require permission from BRAD-PC\Brad" to make changes to this file. BRAD-PC is this Computer and My username is Brad (or it was under Win 7, I wonder
if the Win 10 upgrade has messed up user accounts)

Another forum post suggested running the remove directory command "rd /s /q E:\$RECYCLE.BIN" from an elevated command prompt, this returns "The directory is not empty" but if I cd into it it appears empty (dir returns "File Not Found")

I tried turning off the Recycle Bin for this drive (from the Recycle Bin Properties Dialog) but that doesn't help.

Last another forum post suggested using a program WinDirStat and selecting Empty Recycle Bin from the Clean menu, but I just recieve "Catastrophic failure"

Are there any other ways to empty the Recycle Bin or will I have to Copy all my good files (almost 1TB) to another drive, format this drive, and then copy them back?

-Thanks