Win32 application. HBITMAP LoadImage fails to load anything

I'm writing a function that quickly draws an image of a menu for a game I'm making. I'm able to draw the background and text blocks just fine but I'm having trouble creating a bitmap image on the screen

bool menu::drawMenu(PAINTSTRUCT ps)
{
HWND hWnd = GetActiveWindow();
HDC hdc = GetDC(hWnd), hdcMem;

//Draw a new background

HPEN blackPen = CreatePen(PS_SOLID, 1, RGB(0, 0, 0));
HBRUSH blackBrush = CreateSolidBrush(RGB(0, 0, 0));
SelectObject(hdc, blackPen);
SelectObject(hdc, blackBrush);
Rectangle(hdc, 0, 0, 1080, 720);

//insert selection text

TextOut(hdc, 30, 0, L"New Game", 8);
TextOut(hdc, 30, 30, L"Exit Game", 9);

//draw arrow sprite

HBITMAP arrow = (HBITMAP)LoadImage(NULL, L"C:\\Users\\Tim\documents\\visual studio 2013\\Projects\\BoulderBisque\\BoulderBisque\\arrow.bmp", IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE);
    DWORD lastError = GetLastError();
if (arrow == NULL)
{
    TextOut(hdc, 0, 60, L"Image Load Failed", 17);
    return false;
}
hdcMem = CreateCompatibleDC(hdc);
if (hdcMem == NULL)
{
    TextOut(hdc, 0, 90, L"Memory Creation Failed", 22);
    return false;
}
SelectObject(hdcMem, arrow);
BitBlt(hdc, 0, choice * 30, 16, 16, hdcMem, 0, 0, SRCCOPY);

//cleanup

ReleaseDC(hWnd, hdc);
DeleteDC(hdcMem);

return true;
}

As of now arrow is NULL and I get the Load Image Failed textbox. I am using the relative path of arrow.bmp I also tried using a full path, that didn't work either.

You may have noticed that this function is outside the WndProc. Everything else draws fine. I tried running it in there too everything but the arrow.bmp loads.

What am I doing wrong to cause arrow.bmp to be NULL? I have other methods I plan to run in similar ways so getting this function to run would really be a big help.

EDIT* Whenever I give the full path name it still fails to load. Also is this not the appropriate code for SO? This is my first question...

EDIT** The aditional '/'s haven't fixed the issue.

EDIT*** Using GetLastError, I found the error code to be 2, ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND