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Increase Recycle Bin Capacity in Windows 7

By Codrut Nistor

Posted in How-to, Windows-7

When Windows 7 is installed on a computer it reserves 10% of the space from each drive for recycle bin. This means if drive E: has 50 GB of space in total the recycle bin can contain up to 5 GB of data when deleted. If the deleted data from drive E: exceeds 5 GB the user will be displayed with the message saying that the file cannot be sent to recycle bin because of its large size and if the user wants to delete the file permanently. This default configuration is ideal for almost every scenario however if the administrators want they can increase or decrease the space reserved for recycle bin. For example administrators can increase the reserve space for recycle bin from 10% to 30% to allow it to store larger files. You can do so by following the steps given below:

  1. Logon to the computer with administrator account.
  2. On the desktop right click on Recycle Bin and from the menu click on Properties.
  3. On Recycle Bin Properties box click to select the desired drive letter for which you want to increase or decrease the reserve space.
  4. Under Settings for selected location category make sure that Custom size radio button is selected and in the available text box specify the amount you want to reserve for recycle bin as per your requirement. (The value you will try should be in the unit of megabytes for example for 2 GB you need to type 2048).
  5. Finally click on Ok button to make your settings permanent.