Web deploy fails - it creates folders but not files

When I try and publish via web deploy it fails with the very helpful error message

"An error occurred when the request was processed on the remote computer. The server experienced an issue processing the request. Contact the server administrator for more information."

• I have checked that the user permissions are set correctly on the folder I am deploying to.

• I can use web deploy on other sites on the server (with the same user account).

• When I click Start Preview in the Visual Studio publish wizard there is no error and it produces a list of what will be changed.

• I have checked for Web Deploy error logs on the server and there are none.

• The interesting thing and possibly the key to this problem is that the FOLDERS of the project DO get published to the server but the FILES DO NOT.

• It's an MVC website that I am trying to deploy

Any suggestions would be very gratefully received