$RECYCLE.BIN on "Pooled" vdisk @ 522GB - what is this?

[Nikuk]

v 2.2.0.739 BETA; Win 10 Pro 64bit; SSD Optimizer

 

I have an 'expected' 182 GB of non duplicated data on my pool, but today I have discovered 522 GB of non duplicated data sitting in a '$Recycle.Bin' on this pool. I certainly don't recall having set it up. I was only able to see the '$recycle.bin' by going into the [Pool Options > Folder Duplication] tree. 

 

I have double checked the OS Recycle bin, including system files. I have double checked the Drive letters recycle bin / disk cleanup as well.

 

This pool is built on (5) 6 TB HDD so I checked through each of them and on the HDD that has the most unduplicated data (435 GB) there is a ".covefs" folder which contains a "reparse" folder, none of which report having any size in Windows explorer. There is one other drive with a .covefs > reparse folder tree but the unduplicated data count is massively smaller (50GB).

[Christopher (Drashna)]

The "$Recycle.Bin" folder is well, what it sounds like.  It's the recycle bin.  And it's setup by Windows on all non-removable disks.

 

If the contents aren't showing up, it may be that it's for a different user account, or otherwise misconfigured. 

 

That said, you should be safe to delete this folder (assuming the contents are not needed). 

[Nikuk]

The "$Recycle.Bin" folder is well, what it sounds like.  It's the recycle bin.  And it's setup by Windows on all non-removable disks.

 

If the contents aren't showing up, it may be that it's for a different user account, or otherwise misconfigured. 

 

That said, you should be safe to delete this folder (assuming the contents are not needed). 

Yes, thank. Maybe I've phrased it poorly, but I wanted to make sure that these covefs folders were not something needed by Drivepool.

 

There are no other users.

The 500GB of data doesn't show up anywhere.

There is no folder to delete as I am unable to find it in Windows explorer.

 

I suppose I could try to chase it down in a Command Prompt... 

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, the ".covefs" folder is used to store metadata about the pool. Specifically "reparse point" information.  If you're using reparse points, symbolic links, junctions or the like on the pool, then you don't want to touch this folder. 

 

As for chasing down the data, use WinDirStat or the like. Run it as "Admin" and then index the drives in the pool. 

 

 

Also, if you're sure it's nothing important, you can safely delete the entire "$RECYCLE.BIN" folder from the pool to reclaim the space.