(1) Do you have Norton or another that will take over the Recycle Bin?
     Then, look through it's menus/FAQs/Readme.
(2) Open Explorer.
(a) How does "C:\Recycled" behave?
(b) How does "Recycle Bin" at bottom of left pane behave?

http://www.kellys-korner.com/win98.htm For an excellent Bin write-up &
fixes
http://www.aumha.org/ Perhaps here too
www.aha.ru/~mwz/files/bin-fix.cab Zhilin has something
http://www.colba.net/~hlebo49/er1026.htm Leboeuf's stuff
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=136517

I actually didn't run the .reg programs I downloaded from Kelly, which
would rebuild the Recycle Bin in the Registry. I looked through the docs
and extracted this fix for a corrupt Bin:

1. "START, Shut Down, Restart in MS DOS mode"
2. Enter "Deltree /y c:\recycled\"
   (No quotes. You need the closing backslash [\], she says.)
   Repeat for each partition you may have with a Bin.
3. EXIT or Ctrl-Alt-Del to Windows.
4. Delete something useless & empty the Bin.

BE CAREFUL, though; DELTREE is powerful. Get all the way to the end of
that Deltree line, before you hit the Enter key.

If you have anything in the Bin you want to keep, restore it first. The
Bin will regenerate after re-boot-- totally empty.