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Portable Recycling Bin

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Lord_Theren
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Portable Recycling Bin

Hello all

I am looking for an app that sits on a portable drive that acts like the Windows recycling bin, but portable. Here are the features I am looking for;

-Complete portability
-Adds an option in the right-click menu when the app is running (or not running) to delete files to the portable recycling bin
-Basically the Windows recycling bin but portable

If an app like this doesn't exist, would a developer please create one? Thanks Smile

ottosykora
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nothing is moved

many people think that recycle bin is something where some data is moved to when deleted.
This is not true and therefore there is no recycle bin with such functionality possible.
Recycle bin just keeps links to files which the user did attempt to delete. Those files are in exactly same location still, but have kind of got new address to find them.

For that reason there is no use for that in portable way, it will even crate lot of problems.
What can you do with links to files on a portable device which is not connected to the actual computer any more? All the links in it are invalid and useless. And there is no other content there, no file, non of your data is located there.

You can have it, if you buy usb stick which acts as local drive and not removable drive. You have to see that such stick is w8 compatible and then there real chance that it will have a recycle bin on it. This is however just the same recycle bin as on the host windows, so do not be too excited abt it.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

3D1T0R
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Recycle Bin's don't break as you described when switching PCs

Windows' Recycle Bin is basically a virtual folder which links to the $RECYCLE.BIN folder(s) at the root of each local drive. Each drive holds it's own 'Recycled' content and some form of database so that the computer can tell which files are/were what, and when said drive is disconnected from the computer the content in it's $RECYCLE.BIN also disappears from the computer's Recycle Bin. Following this same pattern, if you take a drive which has had some of it's files placed into the Recycle Bin into another computer those files will now appear in that computer's Recycle Bin.

This is not to say that Windows' Recycle Bin would work for you as it isn't implemented for "Removable Drives", only "Local Drives", and it's not really designed for portable use. What you should do is use the search functionality of the website before you post, if you had done so you would have found that you are not the first person to have asked for this, nor is there no solution to be found, in fact the first result when searching for "Portable Recycle Bin" is a post about "FlashBin", a program written by one of the PortableApps.com Developers specifically for this purpose. Admittedly the functionality is not exactly as you've described (hooks the Delete key unless you specify a custom hotkey, doesn't handle right-click -> delete, moves to a normal folder, rather than some special virtual folder with database of file info, etc.), but to be honest it's just about as close as you can make while remaining truly portable.

Edit: I see you did find the FlashBin thread, however you really should have searched before you posted, rather than afterwards. Also, I don't think that wraithdu is likely to give FlashBin an update any time soon, but AFAIK it's also the only truly portable 'Recycle Bin' style program available.

~3D1T0R

usrnm
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MicroBin

i use MicroBin but there's also MiniBin. have no idea if they meet your criteria.

Lord_Theren
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More Questions

I did find the FlashBin thread a while ago actually, before I became a hardcore Portable Apper.

So if I understand correctly, any content deleted from a local drive (I assume a portable hard drive would work as well?) will show up on the local recycle bin and if you move to a new computer the deleted data would appear in that recycle bin too?

If this the case, if the account holder of said computer were to look in their recycling bin, would they find an trace of the deleted data?

The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

mjashby
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More Questions

You really need to do a little more reading about the way the Windows OS/File Systems work.

The direct answer is NO unless, of course, you leave your portable USB Disk Drive attached to the account holder's PC. 'Recycle Bins' are exclusive to the individual drives they are located on. Windows simply gives you a merged view of all the recycle Bins it can find: If the Drive isn't there it can't find the files!

For what you asked for earlier, there is one more suggestion iBin. Try this link: http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?q=ibin&m= If memory serves me, it's written in AutoHotKey.

MJA

3D1T0R
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The data never leaves the drive

The recycled content never leaves the drive it's on, as mjashby says, the "Recycle Bin" is just a merged view of the contents of all the different drive's individual $Recycle.Bin folders (this is what I meant earlier when I called it a virtual folder), so when you take your portable hard drive (which shows up as a 'local disk') away from Computer A and plug it into Computer B, Computer A no longer knows anything about any of the recycled stuff on your portable hard drive, and Computer B knows about all of it.

Note: I have never actually done any reading on how Recycle Bin(s) work in Windows, all my knowledge on the subject is from real-world experience.

~3D1T0R

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