Fixing a corrupted recycle bin in Windows 7

I recently had an issue with the recycle bin in windows 7 that meant that I could not view the contents of the recycle bin, and the contents could not be restored.

The problem can be fixed by

1. click start, type cmd to find cmd.exe shortcut
2. right click on the cmd.exe shortcut and click on open "Run as Administrator"
3. type following command not including quotes "cd C:\", then "rmdir C:\$RECYCLE.BIN /s"
4. repeat for every partion, I have an e drive so I also did "cd E:\" "rmdir E:\$RECYCLE.BIN /s"
5. when prompted say yes to agree to the delete.
   
6. reboot machine

*warning - be careful that you write the correct directory as the rmdir /s deletes an entire directory tree.