Copied a file with WinSCP; only WinSCP can see it

Question

I recently copied a 25.5GB file from another machine using WinSCP. I copied it to C:\beth.tar.gz, and WinSCP can still see the file. However no other app (including Explorer) can see the file. What might cause this, and how can I fix it?

The details that might or might not matter

• WinSCP shows the size of the file (C:\beth.tar.gz) correctly as 27,460,124,080 bytes, which matches the filesize on the remote host
• Neither explorer, cmd (command line prompt w/ dir C:\), the 7Zip archive program, nor any other File Open dialog can see the beth.tar.gz file under C:\
• I have configured Explorer to show hidden files
• I can move the file to other directories using WinSCP
• If I try to move the file to Users/, UAC prompts me for administrative rights, which I grant, and I get this error:

  Could not find this item

  The item is no longer located in C:\

• When I try to transfer the file back to the remote host in a new directory, the transfer starts successfully and transfers data
• The transfer had about 30 minutes remaining when I left it for the night
• The morning after the file transfer, I was greeted with a message saying that the connection to the server had been lost. I don't think this is relevant, since I did not tell it to disconnect after the file was done transferring, and it likely disconnected after the file transfer finished.
• I'm using an old version of WinSCP - v4.1.8 from 2008
• I can view the file properties in WinSCP:
  • Type of file: 7zip (.gz)
  • Location: C:\
  • Attributes: none (Ready-only, Hidden, Archive, or Ready for indexing)
  • Security: SYSTEM, my user, and Administrators group have full permissions - everything other than "special permissions" is checked under Allow for all 3 users/groups (my user, Administrators, SYSTEM)

What's going on?!

Answer 1

I had the same problem downloading a 8GB file, and I tried downloading it under C:/ and it didn't work. After I cut and pasted it (Inside WinSCP, where I can see the files) to a download folder, now I can see the files. I suspect it's something to do with access.

Answer 2

The downloaded file was not showing to me as well in C: drive. What I did was I dragged the file and dropped it to some other folder which was there in C: from Winscp explorer only. Thereafter, I was able to see it in folder as well.

Answer 3

Chances are that you are using an older version of WinSCP (5.0 or older) and you actually do not have a write access to the C: and File System Redirector jumped in.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winprog64/file-system-redirector

When you view the C: using an application that disables the redirector, it won't show you the file. If you want to write to the actual C:, you might need to run WinSCP as an administrator.

WinSCP 5.0.1 and newer disables the redirector. So when you attempt to download a file to a location, you do not have a write access to, an error occurs.

See https://winscp.net/tracker/719