Recycle Bin Help!

Dell Latitude D810
Windows XP Pro SP3
Symantec Anti-Virus

I first came upon this problem when I noticed that the Recycle Bin icon on my desktop showed that there were files in it. On instinct, I right clicked and click "Empty Recycle Bin." It responded with, "Are you sure you want to delete the all of the contents of the Recycle Bin?" and of course I clicked yes. Then the following error message popped up: "Cannot Delete Dc39: Access is Denied, Make sure the disk is not full..."

Now not remembering ever deleting a file by that name or a file even existing by that name I opened the Recycle Bin to see what it was and if I should restore that file, if it was important; however, when I opened the Recycle Bin there were no files there.

I immediately went and adjusted my "Folder Options" settings under "View" so that hidden files and Operating System files would be visible. After re-opening the Recycle Bin there were still no files there and the desktop icon still showed the Recycle Bin to have contents.

I tried refreshing the desktop next, but to no avail.

So with the Recycle Bin open I tried to "Empty the Recycle Bin". It then asked me, "Are you sure you want to delete WINDOWS?" And of course I said no. BUT THERE WAS STILL NOTHING ACTUALLY IN THE RECYCLE BIN. So I didn't get it...

I then tried to do a full scan of my system with Symantec AntiVirus, but was stopped with the following error message: "Scan Engine Returned Error 0x20000046". Now I don't know what to do.

Also, minutes later the desktop icon showed the recycle bin to be empty so I double checked to make sure everything was functioning perfectly: I deleted a blank work doc and then tried to empty the bin and the 1st error came back up. I opened the bin and deleted the doc file from the bin, leaving it empty, but of course the icon said it had stuff in it and now when i click on "Empty the Recycle Bin" it asked if I want to delete that doc file (which has already been deleted?) and then repeats with the 1st error message.

Any help with this confusing matter would be greatly appreciated.