Very Slow Start Up (Sonar Professional)

Do you have mapped network drives or media devices with network discovery enabled? 
One reason for something like this is that for the first time it takes time to discover these. It could also be a very slow init from your audio interface.
To troubleshoot it unplug your computer from your network if you have one and also disable WIFI and see if the problem goes away. You can also try starting with your audio interface turned off.
 
If the problem goes a way this will at least point you in the right direction.

Sooo, I've tried all of the above and Sonar is still clocking in @ about 6.5 minutes to load. Any other suggestions? Also, I have deactivated all of my 3rd party VST's with the exception of my waves mercury bundle and Izotope bundle.

Noel, my 64 bit plat takes 60 seconds from splash to main window. Always. For the first 45 seconds or so there is no disc activity as if Sonar is stuck waiting for something , then the expected flurry of disk reads as you would expect
for the last 15 seconds as Sonar loads. After that, she hums along nicely. It does this even if my CS is loaded or not.
 
The 32 bit version of plat jumps right up. So do the 64 bit versions of previous Sonars on the same machine, same OS (win 7 SP1)
 
Upon reading this thread. I disconnected all my mapped drives and turned off net dsicovery.
Nothing changed.
 ***** addendum! - then turning off my WiFi switch to disable my computer's internet reduced this delay to 20 seconds. *****
 
32 bit still does not suffer from this and has always been a good trooper. 
 
:Ron
 
 

You don't have 'scan VST on startup' enabled (edit,preferences,Folder etc....) ?
 
could be a folder path related thing, would say somehow the settings for X3 are not ideal....your computer
is not finding or opening the wrong files / paths when opening Sonar.
 
Hope you get it fixed soon, then you could create a Sonar X3 icon in the taskbar on your desktop (drag X3 shortcut to taskbar)....that opens Sonar more quickly always I found.
good luck !

I've got a feeling that what's happening is that Sonar is checking to see if 64bit versions of your 32 bit plugins exist.
I made the move to 64 bit from 32 bit and had the same problem.
I did some housekeeping to separate my 32 bit plugins into two separate folders, "vstplugins-32" and "vstplugins-32 duped"
"vstplugins-32 duped" contains plugs that exist in 32 and 64 bit and that folder does not get scanned by Sonar x64 but it does get scanned by Sonar x86.
Doing this severely cut down my Sonar x64 start up time down to less than 20 seconds.

robert_e_bone
Wi-Fi adapters/drivers have PLAGUED Sonar uses for as far back as I remember, in all sorts of bizarre ways - usually with latency, but they have caused all manner of strangeness in Sonar.
 
MANY folks either turn off or disable their Wi-Fi right before launching Sonar, then turn it back on or enable it again after finishing their Sonar session.
 
Bob Bone
 

I'll try that when I get home and let you know if that worked or not. Thanks for your assistance ! You rock!

Sonar starts in about 15 seconds for me. Loading a project can take 30 seconds after the initial menu where you choose your project.

For the sake of clarity, I'm assuming you mean Sonar 2015 when you say "Professional" (since you also refer to X2 and X3).  Your sig says "Sonar 8 Producer through X3", so with 2015, you have at least five versions of Sonar installed.  Is that correct?
 
If it were me, I'd do a system image/restore point, then a complete uninstall of every version of Sonar ("Complete" meaning after the uninstalls, delete any leftover CW folders and registry entries, then reboot).  Now install only the versions you need to work, going from lower to higher (I'd recommend versions 8, X2, and 2015.  If you can do without X2, even better).
 
I'm willing to bet that after doing the above, Sonar will run smoother/faster.
 
 

I would go one step further. Backup, wipe the partition and install Windows. Start from scratch. There is nothing like a clean install to clean out the cobwebs.