[RESOLVED] How to Recover Partial Project for VSB Express

[rlsj]

C-drive crashed. Had to replace it and of course reinstall everything, including XP with all updates and VS Basic Express V10. Apparently my VSBasic project, a console application, was inadequately backed up. The VSBasic-invoking files were lost. I have only the .application, .designer.vb, .resx and .vb files recovered. How can I insert them into a project format so as to continue development?

I'm running XP with all updates on a quad-core Intel processor. I have tried creating a new project, deleting the contents of the new .vb file and pasting in the old .vb file. "Debug" would not attempt to compile the result.

(If this is the wrong subforum for this problem, please indicate the right one and I'll move to it.)

Thank you for your attention.

--rlsj

[gep13]

Hello rlsj,

Welcome to the forums!

I am going to move your question to the General Developer Forum, as I suspect that this is the best place to get an answer to your question.

Gary

[Nightwalker83]

What do you mean by "VSBasic-invoking files"?

[Joacim Andersson]

What do you mean by "VSBasic-invoking files"?

I think he means the solution and project files.

When you mention that it will not compile your source when you create a new project and paste the old .vb file content into the newly created one, what error message do you get? Is it perhaps something in the line of "Sub Main was not found in ConsoleApplication1.Module1"? If that is the case you only need to change the startup object, click on Project Properties (on the Project menu) and on the Application tab change the Startup Object to Sub Main.

I am going to move your question to the General Developer Forum, as I suspect that this is the best place to get an answer to your question.

It belongs in VB.Net so I in turn moved it there.

[rlsj]

What do you mean by "VSBasic-invoking files"?

When I attempt to open a project (using VSBasic invoked by icon), the "open" dialog box allows "Objects of type: All Project Files (*.sln, *dsw, *vcw, *.vbproj)." I assume files with these extensions would invoke VSBasic if I had one to double-click in Windows Explorer, which I don't -- at least, not for the recovered project.

--rlsj

[rlsj]

When you mention that it will not compile your source ... what error message do you get? Is it perhaps something in the line of "Sub Main was not found in ConsoleApplication1.Module1"? If that is the case you only need to change the startup object, click on Project Properties (on the Project menu) and on the Application tab change the Startup Object to Sub Main.

Now I get different results. After substituting the old .VB file's contents for those of the new "Module1.vb," changing the startup object to "sub main" and keying "Start Debugging," I get a box stating "There were build errors. Would you like to continue and run the last successful build? (Yes/No)." 37 errors are listed, the first of which is "Error 1 'Sub Main' was not found in 'Xambooks.Module1'." ("Xambooks" was my previous project, which name I assigned to the new project.) Obviously the old .VB file's contents have not been made a part of the new project.

--rlsj

[Joacim Andersson]

If you get that many errors you obviously have more code in your original project that you haven't added to your new project.

If you want to recreate the project as a whole then start by creating a new project of the same type, remove (as opposed to change) the file you get as the startup. Now add all the files that you had in your previous project. Make sure the startup object is pointing to the actual startup object (module) that you want to use and don't forget to add any references that your old project might have used.

If you need further help and the source code isn't too sensitive, then try zipping up what you have and add it as an attachment here and I (or someone else) will surely make it work for you, as long as you don't have any other essential file that are missing (I found it strange that you had a .designer file since this was supposed to be a console application where no designer is used, as opposed to a Windows Forms application).

[rlsj]

If you want to recreate the project as a whole then start by creating a new project of the same type, remove (as opposed to change) the file you get as the startup. Now add all the files that you had in your previous project. Make sure the startup object is pointing to the actual startup object (module) ...

Thank you very much! After following the above directions I was able to recover the project and proceed with development.

FYI, this project was for a program I wrote several months ago and made executable before the hard-drive crash. Having reinstalled everything, I discovered a bug in it that would have caused the loss of essential data: in other words, a bug that had to be fixed instead of worked around. Breakpoints, of course, are essential to any but the simplest debugging, which is why I had to put the program back into "development."

(I found it strange that you had a .designer file since this was supposed to be a console application where no designer is used, as opposed to a Windows Forms application).

You are absolutely right. It was (is) a Windows Forms application. This is only my second VSBasic program and the significance of that had escaped me. Thanks very much for the implied suggestion. It probably saved me additional hours of grief.

I would mark this thread as "solved" if I knew how to do it.

--rlsj

[gep13]

Hey,

Check the link in my signature, it explains how to mark a thread as resolved

Gary