How to resolve 1308 or 1309 errors while installing Visual Studio

I was contacted by a customer this week who was trying to install Visual Studio .NET 2003 and was receiving 1308 or 1309 error messages during setup, which caused setup to rollback and fail. The errors appeared in the verbose MSI log file similar to the following (note that for Visual Studio 2002, 2003 and 2005 setup, the log file is %temp%\vsmsilog*.txt where * is a randomly generated ending):

• MSI (s) (87:F3) [20:13::24:123]: Product: Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 - English -- Error 1308.Source file not found: C:\Win\Microsoft.Net\Framework\URTInstallPath\system.security.xml. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it.
• MSI (s) (84:E0) [22:17:29:968]: Product: Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 - English -- Error 1309.Error reading from file: e:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Samples\Technologies\Serialization\vb\SerializationVB.vbproj. System error 1. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it.

There are many possible causes for 1308 or 1309 errors in an MSI-based setup. The most common cause of this that we've seen for Visual Studio 2002, 2003 and 2005 setup is an issue reading from the source media while installing from CD or DVD. This could be due to scratches, dust or other physical flaws on the disc itself. It could be a firmware or driver issue with the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive (we see this a lot for some of the older generation DVD-ROM drives that have slower spin speeds in particular).

The most reliable workaround we've found for eliminating 1308/1309 errors and allow Visual Studio to install successfully is to copy the contents of the VS CDs or DVD to a local hard drive and then install from the local hard drive instead of from media. The instructions that can be used to copy the VS CDs or DVD locally are documented in the following locations:

• The VS .NET 2002 readme 
• The VS .NET 2003 readme 
• This knowledge base article (which is essentially a reprint of the readme contents from both VS 2002 and 2003)

Note that if you have VS 2005, there is not yet a readme posted that I could find since it just shipped. I will update this post with the official link when it is available, but in the meantime you can use steps similar to the VS 2003 steps (except you do not need to change the [Baseline] section of setup.ini anymore).

The instructions I linked to above refer to creating a network install point so that you can install VS in a corporate or academic network environment, but the same set of steps apply to copy VS to a local drive to install from directly in order to resolve 1308/1309 errors. I think the instructions on those pages are self-explanatory but I do want to call out a couple of key points:

• When copying VS CDs to a local drive to install from, make sure to choose the Yes to All option if you are asked if you want to overwrite files with the same name
• After copying the files locally, you need to update the relative paths listed in setup.ini so that the links on the main setup screen for the VS prerequisites and MSDN will work correctly. Note that you will not need to update the prerequisites path in VS 2005 because of changes in how setup works behind the scenes.
• The information about the [Product Key] section is specific to network install scenarios, so you can skip this if you are only trying to eliminate 1308/1309 errors

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2005
  I'm trying to install visual studio 2003 on a Windows Server 2003. I've copied the cds to the hard-drive in a second attempt to install. None of the XML files appear to be anywhere.
  
  Please help.
  
  Mindy Jeanne Leslie

• Anonymous
  December 14, 2005
  Hi Mindy Jeanne Leslie - I am confused about your scenario. Which XML files are you referring to?

• Anonymous
  January 17, 2006
  I'm attempting an install over http from an ACP (via Radia) and get a 1308 error. The file specified in the error is different on various attempts. This occurred on WINXP but not WIN2K.
  
  Thanks,
  Glen

• Anonymous
  January 17, 2006
  Hi Rcavin1 - Are you attempting to install Visual Studio in this scenario? If so, have you tried the workarounds listed in the readme and knowledge base articles that I linked to above?
  

• Anonymous
  January 17, 2006
  Yes, I'm trying to install Visual Studio 2005. I'm attempting to create an installation package that doesn't require a separate network share, but rather installs via Radia from a distributed infrastructure. I've been able to successfully create an ACP, import into Radia and install on WIN2K, but get the 1308 error on WINXP.

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2006
  Hi Rcavin1 - I am not familiar with the Radia tool that you mention in your comment. Are you able to install VS 2005 on XP directly from the ACP that you created with Radia out of the picture? Trying this would help narrow down whether or not this is an issue in VS setup or in Radia. Also, is the 1308 error reported consistently for the same file each time you try to install, or does it vary?
  

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2006
  Mr. Stebner, about the error 1308 related to the specific file system.security.xml, it sounds a bit impossible that could be due to scratches, dust or other physical flaws on the disc.
  
  I solved the problem turning off the extra drives of a multiple CD-ROM system.
  
  It looks like a sort of installation control in order to avoid the scenario described on this article.
  
  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822355#XSLTH3178121121120121120120
  
  5.2. Error 1308: Source file not found
  This message is displayed when installing Visual Studio .NET 2003 from a shared CD-ROM drive or installing on some systems with multiple CD-ROM drives.
  
  

• Anonymous
  February 28, 2006
  Hi Henry - You are correct, I forgot about that other issue with multiple CD-ROM drives.  That error should only happen if you are installing from a shared CD-ROM drive or from a multi-CD-ROM system where you have VS CD1 in one of the drives and VS CD2 in one of the other drives.
  

• Anonymous
  February 28, 2006
  I previously posted a set of instructions that can be used to copy Visual Studio installation CD/DVD...

• Anonymous
  February 16, 2007
  Where to get Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 Where to download the .NET Framework 2.0 redistributable

• Anonymous
  October 22, 2010
  1309 hatası veriyor ve eula.rtf. dosyasını olmadıgını soluyor

• Anonymous
  June 16, 2011
  I solved my 1308 Source file not found error. This link:   support.microsoft.com/default.aspx 5.2. Error 1308: Source file not found This message is displayed when installing Visual Studio .NET 2003 from a shared CD-ROM drive or installing on some systems with multiple CD-ROM drives. To continue with setup, insert the next CD into the drive that originally had CD1, and then click Retry. Repeat for each CD when the error message appears. I was installing Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 on a Windows XP Home Edition 32bit with the latest updates as of June 16 2011. Hope this helps :)

  • Anonymous
    November 23, 2018
    Thank you ^^.