os.path.exists does not recognize a subdirectory under C:\Windows\system32\drivers

Can anyone tell me why this behaviour is exhibited:

C:\...>dir C:\Windows\System32\drivers\subdir\0xDEADBEEF.008
 Volume in drive C is Win7HPx64
 Volume Serial Number is 04BF-EE2E

 Directory of C:\Windows\System32\drivers\subdir\0xDEADBEEF.008

08/11/2011  04:21 PM    <DIR>          .
08/11/2011  04:21 PM    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  11,581,788,160 bytes free

C:\...>C:\Python27\python.exe
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Nov 27 2010, 18:30:46) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on
win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> silo = r'C:\Windows\System32\drivers\subdir\0xDEADBEEF.008'
>>> os.path.isdir(silo)
False
>>> os.path.exists(silo)
False

os.stat on said directory raises a WindowsError: "[Error 3] The system cannot find the path specified...."

I tried with a cmd console launched with "Run as administrator" context menu, too开发者_如何学Python. No dice:

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If you're using a 32-bit Python build on 64-bit Windows, then accesses to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 will be transparently redirected to C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64. On 64-bit systems, SYSTEM32 contains 64-bit DLLs and SYSWOW64 contains 32-bit DLLs.

To access the real SYSTEM32 directory from a 32-bit Python, use C:\WINDOWS\SYSNATIVE.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384187%28v=vs.85%29.aspx