I can no longer save my project !

[iliekater]

This is very weird ! I can no longer save my project !
Here's what happened :
In my PC I have 2 hard disks . Lets call them HD1 and HD2 . I used to work on a project through the visual studio installed on HD1 . I could modify it , save and again modify it and save it again .
One day I booted from HD2 , in which I also have the same version of visual studio , and I opened , modified and saved the same project .
Now , I booted again from HD1 (like I do in most of the cases) , but now I can no longer save the project .
Here's what's going on every time I press the save button on a form the I just modified :
- I press the save button (or I am asked to save from the Editor itself when I press the Run button to test the modified project , and I confirm that by saying that Yes I want to save) .
- Normally at the point the project should be saved with no problem .
- However , now the "Save file As" dialog box appears and asks me with what name I should save the form (i.e. "My_Form_1.vb") . So I press the Save button , and then a message appears telling me : "My_Form_1.vb already exists . Do you want to replace it ?" . Why does it ask that ? Anyway , I answer with the"Yes" button , and then another error message appears saying : "The operation could not be completed" .
- I checked if the files some how turned into ReadOnly state , but that's not happening .

So , is there anything I can do to use (and re-save) my project again ?

[si_the_geek]

Don't just check the read-only state of the file, also check to see if the Permissions (for the file, and the folder it is in) include write access for your Windows account - it is possible that permissions got changed by saving from the other instance of Windows.

[iliekater]

You are right , it seems that that was the problem .
I don't know much about this "Permissions" invention that there is in today's Windows , so I ran the program called "TakeOwnershipPro" and now it seems that everything works fine .
But is there any way I can prevent it from happening again ?

[si_the_geek]

Permissions has definitely been around since Windows 2000 (maybe earlier), and you don't need a separate program to fix issues with it (it is all built in to Windows, mainly via file/folder properties), but feel free to use a program if you prefer.

In terms of preventing it from causing problems, the easy way is to not use the same files from different instances of Windows (on what they consider to be local hard drives), as they will set the permissions as they see fit. For files that you want to write from multiple instances of Windows (that aren't networked together), it is best to use a non-NTFS drive, like a USB stick or similar (keep your hard-drives as NTFS, as it gives benefits even if you do sometimes gets problems like this).

[iliekater]

Yes , you are right . NTFS is better . For example you can have files larger than 2 GBs .
The only solution I have found to this problem is to bring back a backup copy of my project and then replace the newly modified files . The only problem is that any changes to the project must be done again (the forms , the modules , the classes etc remain the same even if they are newly created , but - for example - if you add another form to the project , then this must be added again) .

[si_the_geek]

You should be able to navigate to the folder in Explorer, then right-click on the folder to view permissions, and be able to take ownership from there (you might need to do it for the files too, but when doing the folder you probably get the option to propagate to sub-folders and files).

Exactly how you take ownership depends on the version of Windows you are using etc, and I'm afraid I can't remember the details because it has been years since I've done it... but if you can't work it out yourself easily, there are likely to be good guides for it on the internet.

[kpmc]

Taking ownership is as easy as clicking advanced, change, slect an owner, and place a check on "Replace all child object.... bla bla bla"

If all else fails, get yourself a copy of Knoppix (Any live Linux CD/USB) and boot of that and copy the project files to flash and boot back up into windows. Linux could give 2 hoots about windows "security"