Summary

Symptoms

In InstallShield Express, one of the following errors occurs at build time:

• ** Error: -1024: <PATH>\myfile.ext not found. Cannot stream the file into the Binary table

• ** Error: -1024: The source file <PATH>\myfile.exe for an icon does not exist

Cause

Both of these errors are caused by entries in the Binary table within the project file (.ism or .ise). This error occurs when the build tries to include a file in the Binary table, and the project contains a bad path that points to the file.

• The first error pertaining to the Binary table occurs primarily due to custom actions or files in the Setup Files view. The error occurs when a custom action is pointing to a file that is not found in that path.

• The second error pertaining to the source file occurs when a shortcut has a file pointing to an icon file, which does not exist in the specified path.

Resolution

The following are some suggestions to try to eliminate the issue.

• Make sure that the custom action's file name section or the shortcut's icon section points to a valid path. These paths should be absolute paths.

• Delete the custom action or the shortcut causing the issue and recreate it.

• Make sure that there are no files in the Setup Files pane under "Define Setup Requirements" or "Define Setup Requirements and Actions" that have missing links or invalid paths.

The other alternative is to use Orca (a Microsoft utility) to delete entries from the Binary table that are left behind causing the error 1024 at build time.

Note: Only projects created in InstallShield Express 3.5 SP4 or later can be opened and modified using Orca. Projects created in earlier versions of InstallShield Express need to be upgraded to InstallShield Express 3.5 SP4 before using Orca.

1. See Knowledge Base article What Is ORCA and How Can I Acquire It? to download and install Orca on your machine.

2. After installing Orca, open your InstallShield Express project file (.ise) in Orca.

3. Under the Tables heading on the left side in Orca, click on Binary. This lists all the entries in the Binary table.

4. In the list of entries, find the entry for which you get Error 1024. You should be able to recognize your entry by the path specified in error 1024 during build time.

5. Right-click on the row that contains your path and select Drop Row. This deletes that entry from the project.

6. Save your project in Orca and open it in InstallShield Express to build it again.

Additional Information

This error is briefly documented in the InstallShield Help Library topic Troubleshooting Build Errors and Warnings.

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