I guess you will have to live with it...

 

Right-click on the trashcan, then Properties. Show me what the dialog says, for both trashcans.

Also try following these steps to hide them, and then show them.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/show-hide-recycle-bin#1TC=windows-7

Go to C:\$Recycle.Bin and tell me how many Recycle Bins you have there.

Also try: start -> "desktop icon", click on the "show or hide common icons..." entry. Select the Empty Bin, reset icon to default.

 

Dialogue for both icons is attached (very different - one behaves like the recycle bin, the other behaves like any other icon).

Images for the desktop with and without the recycle bin box checked are attached. Each time the only icon affected was the real recycle bin.

Image of C:\$Recycle.Bin attached. There are 2 files in that folder.

Resetting the icon to default yielded no change.

 

The one with the two folders is locked (see the lock symbol) and the reason it is impossible to delete it is down to the two folders with the odd names. These are actually created by a rather special user who is now an 'unknown' user, and will probably be found to 'own' the old recycle bin. I can tell you this sort of strange thing has been happening in win 7 for at least 4 years or more with no action or solution from MS. There never will be either.

Examples of the unknown user S-1-5-21-etc.... are :- a previous administration user now replaced by a new administrator for certain reasons (computer pre-owned, or OS updated from earlier OS version), or quite commonly a user generated by backup software installed to do drive imaging and since removed from the system. Such a super-user has to have super-full rights in order to be able to image a complete drive.

Here is an example of the sort of thing people try to remove such folders which can no longer be processed. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ders-how/3160990a-e723-45dc-84e8-3e493ef57c89
I can only report that most times, nothing can be done to remove those problems, but they don't cause any futher trouble, just frustration. To complicate matters, that unknown super-user will also be found in the registry in several places.

 

Ghost-bin location says that the Bin is actually located on a server or file share somewhere.

It seems that your computer is running Win7 Pro (or higher), is/was attached to a domain, and had folder redirection activated at some point. E.g. a company computer.

Is this computer still owned by the company? If yes, then I'm not going to help you further, apart from telling you how you can hide the ghost Bin icon:
Open up My Computer, click on Desktop, click Organize (top-left), Folder and Search Options, Hidden files and folders, Don't show hidden files. OK.



If it's an ex-company computer or something similar, let us know..

 

It's my computer, but yes, I have it on the company network for ease of use. The "hiding" worked just fine, though. So thank you!

 

I see. Well, that's good.

The second 'ghost' bin is there if you delete something from your Desktop or Documents folder that is sync'd to the server. It goes into the Ghost Bin. A 'copy' is made in your normal recycle bin. Most people should have hidden files not showing anyway.

That's the cause of this problem.

 

Thanks : )

 

Do they intentionally hide this recycle bin for security reasons, so that no one can delete files?