A user reported yesterday that the Recycle Bin function on his XP workstation had stopped working. I determined that the scope was a bit smaller than that. When he deleted a file from any of the Redirected folders (Desktop, My Documents, etc.), the Recycle Bin no longer functioned. The file was simply deleted. Deleted from a non-redirected folder worked fine.
I have read pretty extensively on the topic and understand that VSS is the preferable method of restoring a file when using redirection. Indeed, not only do I have VSS running but I also run hourly incrementals with a backup product. Still, there's a chance for complete loss and, well, the Recycle Bin worked for him before.
I do see a RECYCLER folder in the Redirected My Documents, so that seems to be right. And I just tried another workstation (albeit Windows 7 x64) and RB functionality is fine.
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Update: I did some further testing tonight. It looks like this has been going on for a few months. Indeed, it's affecting all Windows XP users. I just deployed a Windows 7 machine for someone this week and his recycle bin is working fine.
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Update x2: It seems like this stopped working for all XP-based users in July. I wonder if a security update was pushed from MS around that time that we installed? I'm still hopeful to resolve this, but my client doesn't care so much because of our backup procedures.
Best Answer
I believe that you'll witness this behavior on all non-local, non-spinning storage (eg network mounts and flash drives - though it may be true across all USB-mounted media as well). The Recycle Bin is really a local alias to a directory that holds files before being fully deleted.
Windows does not setup a RECYCLER alias on non-local media (ie, not the internal hard drive and any partitions thereon) because it can't ensure it will stay consistent.