I'm using Windows 2000. For some unknown reason I am not able to access my Recycle bin. The icon shows up on the desktop and it shows up on my "C" drive in the Windows Explorer, but when I go to click on it nothing happens. If I right click on the icon, under Properties it says "the properties for this item are not available." Can anyone offer a suggestion on fixing this problem?
Thanks.

Reinstall the OS.

Thanks ScottGem, I was hoping for a less drastic solution then reinstalling the OS. I may have to do just that.

Its not that drastic. I'm not talking about a format and reinstall, just a reinstall over the existing to fix the problem.

Hi,
After thorough reseach with Win2000 and the Recycle Bin, it's a Registry problem.
If you have all the update patches for Win2000, from Microsoft, it's supposed to take care of this problem; which is listed by Microsoft as an issue.
If all the patches doesn't solve it for some reason, you might consider using Ccleaner instead of re-installing Win2000.
It's available at:
CCleaner - Crap Cleaner free software download - Spyware FREE (http://www.ccleaner.com)
It cleans out junk files, cookies you don't want to keep, History, URL's, unneeded Registry entries, and much more. It also empties the Recycle Bin. Whether it would empty a corrupt Recycle Bin, I don't know. It might do it, and would be worth a try, instead of having to re-install the operating system.
Best wishes, and good luck.