Cannot empty recycle bin in the normal way

[willythecat]

XP Home, SP3, IE8.
Some really weird things seem to have been happening lately.
Computer slowing right down to a crawl, on powering off windows update kicking in saying it's downloading an update which took over an hour to do,
and just other niggly things.
I'll do a separate post on the viruses/spyware forum later, but l don't think that's causing these problems as l've run everthing imaginable, and all are clear.
Now, when l try and empty the recycle bin via the "empty recycle bin" command, nothing happens. l'm having to highlight all the files and then selecting delete.
l've tried a restore to a week prior, but it still doesn't work properly.
Any ideas?

[Geek-9pm]

Any ideas?

Yes, make sure you have backups.
It may be just something simple. But your don't know.
So first order is to have a usable backup.
After thank you can tweak the system. Or look for malware.

[willythecat]

Thanks for replying Geek.
I've run all the suggested checks for malware,spyware,viruses, hijack this etc and all is clear which is why l thought l'd start on this forum first.
I've tried a restore prior to when l thought the problem started, but this doesn't cure it.
When you say backups, backups of what? The items in there are "rubbish"  so do not require backups.
l do however have the original XP SP1 install disk, but as l now have SP3 and IE8 there is no way l'm going through all that again just for this, l'll live with it!
Tweak the system? Yes please, but l've got no idea where to start hence my question.
Regards

[Geek-9pm]

What I was trying to say is this:
When software begins to behave in ways that we do do recognize, there is the possibility that any part of the structure is damaged. Although Windows is a robust system, it can not and does not generate error messages that give a clear warming about a problem. Many of the error events and just tucked into the event log and most users do not bother to look there.

So you need a full backup of everything you have that is important to you.
In some cases you can not do a repair of the system. The only fix is to restore the whole system from a backup of a week ago. This is not the same as the 'system restore' thing in XP. A popular method is to "clone" the whole hard drive onto another drive and remove it from the machine. Some users do this once a week. Backups are like underwear. You need them, but  people don't often talk about them.   

[willythecat]

Thanks Geek,
Gotcha! Sorry, bit slow on the uptake there.
Actually, will probably need a new hard drive soon. The one l have is a tad old now, and not very great on the gigabytes front! Will have a look around at larger drives/prices etc.
Thanks for your input.
Regards