OOPS!  I was testing a new skin pack, deleted it , and got this error message  :

Access to the path 'E:\InetPub\dnn4_5_5\StagingC\Portals\test01container\Skins\C01_Gd\BgGd.gif' is denied.  I actually got loads of similar exceptions, all pointing to probable file system issues.  So, I looked to the Host Menu to synchronize to file system, and restart the application, and found that Host Settings, File Manager and Vendors were missing from the menu.  I'm not concerned about Vendors, but losing the other two makes my installation unmanagable.  I can say that the problem is probably unrelated to the skin delete - that simply caused me to go and seek these facilities in the Host Menu.  Frankly I've no idea what threw the system off  - I have two dnn instances on the same system, both at 4.5.5 and the menu items are missing from both.  Other recent 'things I changed' were to make the Subscribers Role on both instances not public, and not auto, because I don't want off the street signup to this role. 

I've looked at similar threads, none identical to mine, and have now given Network Service Full Control of folders c:\temp and c:\windows\temp.   I can upload and test my revised skin, but no sign of my Host Settings or File Manager returning.

This leaves me somewhat dead in the water, with users live on my portal.

Any ideas out there what I can do?

Michael G

Sebastian, thanks for the response.  I had'nt realised that changing web.config would force a restart.  I have complete control of the system, so I did a shutdown it.  No luck I'm afraid.  I'm convinced I've created this problem by some unrelated setting I'v done, because I have two separate similar instances ( one a pre-production test system for the other ) and both instances have lost the same menu items.  For example I had made the banners module a premium module, and hoped that would explain the loss of the 'Vendors' menu item, but nothing was restored when I reset it.

Michael G

Hmm..., this got interesting.  I restored from a backup of 10 days ago, where the three currently missing entries are present.  I found three related records missing in the TABS table, namely :

TabID                             16                     19             20
TabOrder                         1                     7                 9
PortalID                     NULL            NULL         NULL
TabName Host Settings File Manager     Vendors

Since the restored system is not a fresh install, there are other differences further down, but they related to individual portals which are new / changed since the restore point.  There are no differences in the HostSettings table, and the Modules table shows no differences in the default(Null?) and 0 portalID .

So, on face value it looks like the TABS records related to the three missing Host menu items are also gone.  Can I just re-create them by hand? and see what happens!

Thanks for your help.

Michael G.