Now you see it - then you don't

Having an absolutely fantastic day of recording; started at around 10 a.m. this morning. Just about complete with mix down, after playing song, realized I needed to drop some vocals volume down a bit - X1 crashes, and I get the Microsoft do you want to send this error message (of course I know they don't give a crap) but I say, yes, I think I will - Just in case someone is awake in India.
 
Open X1 back up, started to tinker with vocals, and you guessed it - poof, X1 crashes with the Microsoft message again, ah, what the heck, let er rip - send em the message.
 
Open my friendly X1 again, get past the vocal editing; time to mix down - X1 crashes again; no wait; this time X1 displays a message (Would you like Sonar to try and save your changes; do I? you bet, thanks for asking Sonar, cause I know you really care about the fact that I was working on this song all day - you've got nothing but love for me. I say yes; poof sonar shuts down.
 
I figure, maybe I should reboot the system since I've had an inordinate amount of crashes - after my lovely system comes back up, I open X1 anxiously waiting to get back to my tune - there you are my lovely pet, right in the list of recent songs.
 
I believe I'll select you, cause after all, we've spent the day together.
 
Whats this? Sonar CANNOT find this song. Must be a mistake, this time I go to the path were I know I put the song. "WTF!!!!!!" it's nowhere to be found; gone like my ex wife and all my cash from my bank account.
 
Am I the one in a million that the programmers knew this would happen too? Is the song really gone, or did Sonar out of their desire to make sure I could get it back, rename it?

That's definitely the weirdest scenario I've ever heard, 2by2. I've been using Cakewalk/Sonar since it came out on floppy disks....and have seen all sorts of weird anomalies in my years...but never anything like this. One thing I have learned though....I NEVER allow Sonar to to a save when it crashes. You know how you got that save message and then it shut down? I have had nothing but horrible experiences when that has happened to me past and present. When I try to reopen that saved file, it always tells me it's corrupt and I can never use it. It has never over-written one of my regular saves though, so that's a good thing. Here are my suggestions to you.

1. Never allow it to do its own save if/when it crashes. Some people have luck with this, I do not.

2. Always save after every major thing you do to a project. My left hand is permanently in ctrl +S mode.

3. If you cannot find the Sonar association file for some unknown reason, the wave files of your project HAVE to be on your system somewhere. I'm hoping you have your projects set up so that when they save, they create an audio folder as well. If this is the case, don't worry, not all hope is lost.

4. If you find the folder with the wave files...or find that they are scattered about somewhere, create a new project and just import them back in...resave the project and you should be in good shape. The bad thing here is you'll need to remix your stuff and add in your effects again...but I'd much rather do that than find out that all my wave files are gone.

If you did any midi in the project...it's most likely lost forever. That's one thing I wish Sonar did. When it creates an audio folder for the waves, I soo wish it would create a midi folder as well with all midi data. I still have a hard time understanding how your work association file would just vanish like that unless it's like the guy before me mentioned...maybe you saved it in a different location or something? Those wave files HAVE to be somewhere on your box though. So don't get upset just yet. I can see how maybe a work association file could get over-written or erased possibly (even though it's never happened to me in all my years) but those wave files are on your machine somewhere. So don't get too upset yet. If you didn't have a hard drive crash, they are there.

I really feel bad for you and hope that you can find your stuff and get back to work. I must also say (don't take this the wrong way) was a good read due to how you explained it...it sort of made me laugh a little because of your writing style, words you used. Reminded me of the sometimes colorful ways I describe my situations. :) Although this is no laughing matter, so please don't take it that I've made light of it. Keep us posted on what's going on. I'm positive some of the big guns will chime in on this that are way more knowledgable than I am and they'll sort you out or give you things to try. But if it were me in this situation, what I've told you above is what I'd do. Look for a folder with wave files in it, create a new project, set your bpm and import them all back in...resave, start a new mix. Best of luck.

-Danny

There's a small app called "Everything" that's great for finding files anywhere on your system. It's available here.

-Susan