For some reason, all 4 drives on my PC now have a $RECYCLE.BIN folder at the top of the files list. This first appeared within the last 7 days (it's now July 1st 2013). Should I be worried?
Fiona
All drives/partitions should have a $recycle bin. That's where deleted files from that drive/partition go. They are permanently deleted when you empty the recycle bin.
Normally you don't see it. Did you make a change in Folder Options / View tab to show protected operating system files (uncheck it)?