asp.net BIN folder hiding automatically in IIS and Windows Explorer

[tatemononai]

Ok, this is a very unique bug. I have only been able to find one other
post related to this online, and everybody who responded misunderstood
the problem. I am not trying to reference anything in the BIN folder
directly.

Here is the problem. I had a site running without any problems, and
then all of a sudden it went down and visitors started getting the
error message "Directory 'C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\www.mysite.com\bin' does
not exist. Failed to start monitoring file changes." I logged on to
the server with Remote Desktop and browsed to the parent folder using
Windows Explorer. Just as the error message says, the BIN folder does
not exist - or at least that's how it appears.

So I then reuploaded the folder via FTP. The only strange thing is,
when I logged in via FTP, the folder existed... I had to tell it to
copy over the existing folder. After reuploading the error message
still exists. It did nothing and I still can't see the folder in
Windows Explorer.

If I browse to the folder via the Command Prompt, I can see the folder,
go inside it, see all the files, etc. Everything is there. I tried
deleting everything and uploading again, and then again, and then
again... no good.

Windows Explorer is set to display ALL hidden files and folders... but
for some strange reason it still will not display the bin folder. If I
simply delete the folder (with command prompt) and create a new folder
and rename it to "bin," it will automatically disappear after I rename
it. I then also went and looked in the directories for about a dozen
other sites on the same server, and the BIN folder is hidden for ALL of
them.

If I create a new directory and name it anything, and put a bin folder
inside it, it will disappear.

I am running virus scanners at this point as I can't think of anything
else to try. Anybody out there got an idea?

 

[Robert Bravery]

Have you tried checking permissions on the folder, also check the
permissions under websharing?

 

[Christopher Reed]

I just experienced this problem with my laptop running XP. The best that I
could determine was that prior to me getting the laptop (corporate machine),
someone had made some changes to the local security policy. I tried several
options, but nothing seemed to work. Granted, for me, this was more
widespread across the folders and I couldn't find a consistent pattern as
why I could some folders and not others and why I could see all of the files
in one folder and only a few in another. I ended up reinstalling a clean
version of Windows XP, but I needed to get the laptop to function with my
other computers.