Why is the project unable to find a file that is right beneath its nose?

Question

I'm trying to build a solution that has three VB projects; one that I'm working on, and two others that have interdependencies (although one says "unavailable").

In trying to compile, I get regarding the ancillary project, "Unable to find source file 'J:\DSDPAGE_T.xsl' for file 'DSDPAGE_T.xsl', located in '[TARGETDIR]', the file may be absent or locked."

J? I searched the solution to see if "J:" is hardcoded anywhere, and it's not, so...?!?

The "missing" files are right there n the project! Why is it looking in J? If that is hardcoded somewhere, why doesn't 2-clicking the err msg take me to the spot? When I do, a "File System " tab appears with two panes. On the left:

File System on Target Machine
    Application Folder
    System Folder
    User's Desktop
    User's Programs Menu

...and on the right pane, a listing of the files in that project (the same ones I see in Solution Explorer), many of whom are the subject of err msgs that they cannot be found...?!?

Is this a "VB thing" (I've never worked with VB before) or...?!?

Maybe I can create a J drive and put those files the compiler is wearing blinders about in there just so it will compile - it's not that project I need to work on anyway, I just need to let the solution compile, so I can update the other project.

UPDATE

Looking at one of these files that is visible in the project, but for which the project exhibits acute myopia, its "SourcePath" property does say "J:\DSDPAGE_T.xsl" but that property is readonly/grayed out.

UPDATE 2

In response to user2701753:

I know what you're talking about; I'm used to having these in C# projects; but in this case, there are no References folders. There is only:

Solution 'HDP' (2 projects)
    HDP [project#1]
        ReportFormats [folder]
            [a bunch of .xsl files]
        [a bunch of .vb files]
    HDPSetup [project#2] <-- the problem child
        DetectedDependencies [folder]
        [various files: .dll, .xsl, .exe, .chi, .chm, .mdb, .bmp, .ico]

The "Detected Dependencies" folder (which I thought was maybe the VB version of References) is apparently empty - 2-clicking it does nothing; it doesn't expand or open up.

UPDATE 3

Here is perhaps a good clue: When I look at the project files in Windows Explorer, many of the files that display in Visual Studio are not seen there! For example, C:\Project\ccr\Handheld\Development\Development\HDP\HDP\HDPSetup only has this:

Debug [folder] <- empty
Release [folder] <- empty
HDPSetup.vdproj
HDPSetup.vdproj.vspscc
ccr.bmp
ccr.ico

According to VS, I would expect to see those files that it complains about being on the (nonexistent) J: drive.

UPDATE 4

This is related to the issue above.

To recap the gist: I am trying to port/upgrade a VB.NET (.NET2/VS 2003) solution to .NET4/VS2010.

The solution is comprised of three projects; the Setup project was wreaking more mayhem and malevolence than a marauding crash of rhinoceropuses (it was thought to be on drive J, apparently), and I don't need to do anything to that project, so I removed it from the solution.

That removal reduced my error count from 35 to 14.

However, the remaining errs seem related to the "other" project. There are now two; I'll call them HDP and HHTConvert (because those are their names, and my current employer doesn't seem to be as paranoid about divulging any info that would identify the company or project as my previous one was).

Although the Project Dependencies allows me to set one as dependent on the other, no matter which way I set it, it fails:

0) Both depending on each other - disallowed, circular jerk tailchasing considered bad juju
1) HDP depending on HHTConvert: Type 'HHTConvert.HHTConverter' is not defined.
2) HHTConvert depending on HDP: ""
3) Neither depending on the other:""

So it doesn't matter what I do, the same err msg appears. The line the err points to is:

Public hhtConvertThread As HHTConvert.HHTConverter

What do I have to do to introduce the HHTConvert project to the HDP project? It would seem them being in the same solution - especially when one "depends" on the other - would be enough. HHTConverter is apparently not very dependable.

UPDATE 5

Correction/amendment to my original statement: "I'm trying to build a solution that has three VB projects"

Actually, I successfully removed one project, so it is two projects, and one is C# (the "main" one, HDP, is VB).

Could that (the C#/VB "mismatch) cause the two projects to look askance upon each other, akin to the renowned Star-bellied Sneeches and the "plain vanilla" Sneeches? (I consider the plain ones to correspond to VB).

UPDATE 6

So I've got it compiling now (see my answers), but I'm getting a subsequent (runtime) error, namley: "Unable to load DLL 'cdbmenu1.dll': The specified module could not be found."

And sure enough, one of the VB files does references a DLL with that rather bland name several times, with lines such as:

Declare Sub GetLastMenu1Error Lib "cdbmenu1.dll" (ByVal Msg As String, ByVal Length As Int32)

So, I searched the local (work) network and found some copies of that DLL. I copied the newest version (2.5 years old) to HDP's bin folder, and tried to run the app. Now I get, "An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format"

Is this the part of the story known as "DLL Purgatory" or a rendition of "DLL Perdition" (geschweige denn "Extraordinary DLL Rendition")?

Answer 1

Look at the 'References' in the projects in the Solution Explorer, these have a 'Full Path' if that's wrong drop the reference and readd it.