Urgent problem: VS2010/TFS solution "bindings" missing after rebuilding system

Question

I am using VS2010 with TFS. I was working on a solution containing 35+ projects, and had been making changes across various projects for about a week. Pending changes showed 1/2 dozen+ modified files.

Then my computer crashed... the motherboard died (see PS).  So yesterday I bought a new computer (from a different mfg!) and installed a new copy of Win7, VS2010, etc, etc

FORTUNATELY, I had done a full system file-level backup (Acronis) of the old computer just 12 hours before it crashed, so I have the modified solution files.

But after restoring the solution files and connecting to TFS, I get the message:

"The solution appears to be under source control, but its binding information cannot be found. Because it is not possible to recover this missing information automatically, the projects whose bindings are missing will be treated as not under source control"

So can I restore the missing "bindings" from my backup?  If so, where are they?

Is the issue caused by my trying to open the restored solution using a "fresh" copy of VS2010?  Are the bindings perhaps stored in the VS2010 folder(s) rather than in the solution itself?

Thanks!

DadCat

PS: the computer that died is (was) an HP Envy 17. Quite a screamer for a notebook, but with some obvious design defects: the HDMI (and other ports) are attached directly to the motherboard. So if you have a slightly oversized HDMI cable and you must push hard to insert it, the HDMI port breaks off the motherboard, and can (did) damage the motherboard electronics (ie, it won't power-up). And yes, it's out of warranty. The replacement computer is NOT an HP!

DC 

 

Answer 1

Hi DadCat,

I am moving your thread into the Team Foundation Server - Version Control Forum for dedicated support. Thanks for your understanding.

Best Regards,

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Jack Zhai [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

Open the solution in Visual Studio, click away the prompts about it not being bound to source control.

Connect to TFS, but don't setup workspaces yet.

Go to File, Source Control, Change Source Control (only there with an open solution). Enter the paths to your project files in there and hit the bind button for each project.

Alternatively, but a little riskier, create a new workspace for each Team Project you're connected to and set the root folder, perform get latest, open the solution in Visual Studio, choose Go Offline from the file->source control menu. Now using explorer, copy your old solution over the new location, reload all projects afterwards, choose go online, resolve any conflicts that are found.

For the future, I can recommend something like TFS Auto Shelve, which continuously backs up your local changes to TFS as an alternative to full system backups (or as an additional security next to full system backups?)

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My blog: blog.jessehouwing.nl

Answer 3

Hi,

I have the same problem when I login to the server with a different account credentials. If i login as adminstrator I can open the solution with the TFS source control binding but if i login is any other user into the server i get this message.

"The solution appears to be under source control, but its binding information cannot be found. Because it is not possible to recover this missing information automatically, the projects whose bindings are missing will be treated as not under source control"

Please help

Answer 4

Because TFS stores the workspace information on the server (in 2010 and below, this is changing in the 11 beta), you'll need to make sure that 'the other user' has it's own workspace. If you open the solution from the folders created for user A then TFS will report that there is no workspace for user B on that machine and that path.

This can be very confusing, but generally people just work with one account per machine so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

To solve it, open Visual Studio, Open the Team Tab and choose Source Control. On the top of the window that opens, there's a workspaces dropdown. Create a new workspace for user B. *point it to a different root path then the one for user A* get the latest sources in the new workspace and open the solution from there.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181383.aspx 

http://www.woodwardweb.com/teamprise/000333.html

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My blog: blog.jessehouwing.nl