wp-content/uploads returning 404 error

Hi everyone, I was running some speed tests on my site on Wednesday and I noticed that my wp-content/uploads folder was being re-directed. I finally figured out that an entry in my .htaccess was causing that problem and I removed it. (I was hacked a few months ago and I decided to block them using .htaccess) This is the entry I removed:

ErrorDocument 403 http://www.proxynetwork.ws/blocked.html

which was above:

<Limit GET HEAD POST>
order allow,deny
and then the ip’s being blocked

Since I’ve removed that line it no longer re-directs, but now that folder is returning a 404 error instead. The images are still showing up in my blog posts and can be accessed by url with no problem. Permissions are set at 755 on the uploads folder and all of the folders inside it and images are all set at 644.

I don’t understand why that is the only folder that is returning a 404. If anyone could please help, I’d really appreciate it. It’s really slowing my load times down and I’m at a loss on how to fix it.

I’m using WordPress 3.1 and W3TC. (which, I have been adjusting this week to try to optimize it more.) I’m not sure if I should post my .htaccess here, or not. Thanks in advance!