Can't rebuild my application anymore

Question

I'll give you 2 versions of my problem to describe it, first the short version.

When I try to build my application it does that perfectly and my app works but when I try to rebuild it, that fails and gives an error message saying that 2 files are missing (bin/debug/MusicPlayer.exe and bin/debug/MusicPlayer.pdb). When I then try to build normally, it fails to with the same error.

Now the longer version:
The way this happened was quite out of nowhere, I program on 2 different locations (both in Visual Studio 2010 sp1) but to always have the recent version in the right place I copy the entire solution folder to a usb stick, this folder I copy over again on the other PC and use it to continue were I left off, I've done this many times without problem. Yesterday however, I got an exception while testing the app. But instead of showing this in my code, it was complaining that it could not find the program.cs file (it was there, but apparently it had a different checksum (md5) and it asked me to use this one. After a while I found what part of my code caused the exception and fixed it. Since then I haven't got that error anymore. But when I later tried to rebuild instead of build, it gave me the error described in the short version. I have tried to fix it, but apparently I was not very successful.

Basically, what I think it does is delete the files in the debug folder that need rebuilding and then gives me the error of missing files (the files that it deleted) and thus failing to rebuild succesfully because these deleted files the normal build option won't work to. (What I then do is re-copy them from my usb to make the normal build work). Don't know if it's important, but I program in C# and I'm still learning.
Also when I copied it to my usb I believe I had no errors and the app was working fine (except the part I fixed later, which I could not test at that location). And when I build the entire solution it gives some warning ==> "Assembly 'bun/debug/MusicPlayer.exe' is incorrectly specified as file" and this for 5 files.

Does anyone know how to fix this rebuild problem and if necessary the warnings? Thanks in advance (and sorry for my bad English)

Answer 1

OK it seems like you might be confusing yourself with your directory structure here. If you want to add Content or Resources (Images, Text Files, etc.) you should place them in a folder within your project (not called bin or obj). All your build files will go here. Instead place the Content in another folder and Right Click -> Properties and Set the build action to "Content" or "Resource" and set the Copy to Output Directory (bin folder) to "Do not Copy" or "Copy if newer."

The project is failing because you have the built executable "MusicPlayer.exe" in your project. So Visual Studio is trying to build an executable file in adding to the project. Restructure your directories or remove "MusicPlayer.exe" ever time your build your project.

Answer 2

Do you have any anti-virus software running? They can go way too aggressive on removable drives. You are actually continuously deleting and creating a runnable program on usb stick by recompiling.

Just a guess tho...

Answer 3

Sounds to me like you have a pre- or post-build event with a hardcoded path in it. Fix that using variables and it should be ok.