None of my projects will play anymore.

I'm using Sonar 7 with Windows XP and none of my projects will play anymore. When I open a project and click play it plays for about one second and then it stops and says dropout. I ran check disc and it says there are no bad sectors. I cloned the hard drive and the cloned drive does exactly the same thing. When do I "control alt delete" it shows two Sonar 7s are running for some reason. Could my Sonar be corrupted? Should I uninstall Sonar and reinstall it? I have about five years worth of projects on this drive.

The crucial clue, I think, is seeing two instances of SONARPDR.EXE on the Task List.
 
Are you opening the projects by double-clicking on an icon in Windows Explorer? Or are you opening SONAR first, then loading the project? If the former, try the latter. Or, instead of double-clicking, right-click on the project file's icon and select "Open".
 
This may be irrelevant, but go to the global options and check the "allow only one open project at a time" option.
 

So you have no backups of the projects from 4 years to revert to???!! You just might start sweating right away.

I have multiple backups of all my projects.
I have them stored on DVDs.
I have them on another hard drive stored at an alternate safe location.
And as of this week I have them stored on a cloned hard drive.
 
But none of that matters if my projects won't play.
 
Again my original question is "Do y'all think it would be a good idea to uninstall Sonar and reinstall it?"
My thinking is that since I have no bad sectors on the drive and the cloned drive is having the exact same problem and other programs still work, then some how Sonar has become corrupted. My concern is if I uninstall Sonar and reinstall it, will I be able to open my projects as they are now? Will all the plugins be recognized by the new install and automatically be loaded when I open the projects? Will all my audio tracks still be recognized and assigned to the right projects or when I uninstall Sonar will everything become disassociated and I have to search for and reassign all my plugins and tracks? If that is the case then I think I might as well just rebuild my system from scratch.
 
Which leads me to my second question.
 
If I'm going to rebuild my system, then I think I might want to upgrade to Sonar X2.
If I upgrade to X2 will all my Sonar 7 projects load and play. What about plugins? Most of my plugins are older 32 bit versions and not supported anymore. What if I build a 64 bit system, will the old projects still load and play with all the 32 bit plugins?
 
 

That's a pretty old computer so there could be a dozen things going on besides the hard drive.
I would just put that one aside and upgrade to something newer. 
You can run Sonar 7 32 bit on a W7 computer, seems lots of folks do. No need to upgrade to X2 if your happy with 7. But at some point in time soon you should get those old projects finished and move on. It's like having stuff recorded on a 8 track cassette which will eventually die.  
 
If your stuck with that computer I would still use a newer C drive and re-install Windows and all your software. For me that was always faster than screwing around with a zillion other fixes. 
My guess is your projects will load up fine after a clean re install unless there are other issues with the MoBo  or RAm etc. Open it up, blow the dust out, re seat the RAM, check all your connections. But a redo of the OS is the fastest way to re set to a clean machine. 

You need to check and update the VST-paths in Options-dialogue. On a 64 bit system the 32-bit plugins are in a folder with addition (x86), which your 32-bit-rooted  projects most likely don't know.. 

Try going through Plugin Manager, and choose the files to be scanned for VSTs. Perhaps that frees the buttons in Options, too?

Cactus Music
...I'm not clear on if there was a 64 bit version of Sonar7, I know 8.5 comes with both.
If this is so then best to install the 32 Bit version...

Yes, there was a 64-bit version of Sonar 7, but the OP said in Post#10 that he installed the 32-bit version.

Sorry it's taken so long to respond to this thread
I've been busy lately but I really appreciate the responses.
 
Kalle,  I don't know how to scan them because they are not in the list of registered plug-ins.
Do they need to be registered somehow?
 
Cactus,  I have the 32 bit version installed on Windows 7 64 bit.
All of my plug-ins are in a folder called Steinberg which is on my D drive.
Which folder am I supposed to paste them into?
 
Kev999, The path for my plugins is -  D:\ Program Files\Steinberg
Sonar is on my C drive.
 
The thing I don't understand is why do all of my audio and MIDI files load from the D drive but the plugins don't?
 
Any ideas welcomed.
Thanks

You need to make Plugin Manager scan the folders where you have installed the VSTs in question.
(Or...I do not remember if Plugin Manager in vs.7 works differently, I don't think it does).
 
Your MIDI files are in the actual project folder, and audio files in the audio folder. The paths to those are exactly the same
as in your previous setup, aren't they? So SONAR finds them. Your 32 bit VSTs are located in a new location, so SONAR has to know where they are in order to use them.
 
It's been a long time since I took a thorough look at the Options , not to mention SONAR 7, but IIRC there really is a window with all the different paths used by SONAR.
 
You have not mentioned which VSTs you're talking about, so I can't say whether they need to be registered or not. If you have
been using them this far, I don't think registration is the culprit here. If a registration is required but not done yet, you do get a nag screen and/or the VST works only in demo mode or doesn't work at all.

Make sure to SONAR is "run as administrator" either by right-clicking on the app or icon and selecting the option or selecting the option in the compatibility tab in the program properties. Do not have more than one reference to "d:\program files\steinburg" in the scan path. The scanner recurses through the directories in paths specified. Also deselect the re-scan options.

Having done just about every configuration/upgrade/crossgrade/reinstall/restore, etc. in every version of Cakewalk from 1997 til now and every version of Windows from 98 til 8.1, and taking it from one computer to another, the best way (IMHO) to do it to assure that it will work properly is to install ALL of your old plugins again. Go back to the oldest version of Cakewalk that you have that will install in some compatibility mode and just install the whole thing with all the bells and whistles. Since you likely have lots of disk space on the new one, just install the complete versions of all of them. To be absolutely sure, you might want to apply the appropriate patches to each of the programs. You don't even have to actually RUN each one of them, but you can, just to initialize them and make sure they come up right. Then shut them down and go to the next one until you are up to the current one. Definitely apply all the patches to the current version. Then, finally, do your VST scans after setting the paths to the defaults and the ones that others have already listed.
Finally, run your project and see which, if any, of the installed VST's say they won't load. Those are the ones that are either in an incorrect path or need to be individually reinstalled. Yes, it's very time consuming, but one weekend day in order to get your system back up to running smoothly with all the wonderful bells and whistles that come from Cakewalk (and others) shouldn't be too much to ask....especially after all the work you've already done!
 
My last "migration" was from my old computer to a new fancy schmantzy one running Win7x64. Typically, I install BOTH the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Sonar AND all the plugins that allow it. I use the one that I need to for the 32 bit plugins and then use the other for the 64 bit plugins, but primarily for final mastering.
 
There are a ton of ways to do it......good luck!

did you ever try my method?  just copy and paste them all to the C drive Cakewalk folder

I read you had your computer in the car for a while?
could some hardware come loose inside? maybe re-seat them?
just a shot.