Resolved Win2003: directories in share disappear

When viewed through the filesystem, all subfolders within a shared directory are visible.

When viewed through a share, most folders are visible, but the ones at the end are not. When a directory listing is piped to a file, the folders are still missing.

We have directories based on store numbers, so the directories under the parent shared folder are ST005 through ST388 (with some gaps). All are visible through filesystem, but only ST005 through ST301 can be seen through the share.

We can access a "missing" folder through the share if we explicitly type the path in the explorer address window:

i.e. \\{machine name}\{shared folder}\ST388

Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this? It happens even with the firewall off.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

My guess is ST388 is the 256th folder. Looks like an remnant of the old 8 bit Microsoft networking days. I'd suggest you check for any settings restricting file naming to the old 8 character filename with 3 character extension. For example the /X switch in DIR.

 

Thanks Reggie.

Turns out there was an encryption appliance attached to the server. An update of the encryption software appears to have solved the problem.

Maybe their software had that 8-bit DOS 256 file limit...