Work Missing from project files

I began working on some of these projects using Sonar 8.5 and migrated them to Sonar X1. I then saved my work by saving all of the project files to a removable hard drive when I needed to reinstall Windows. Afterwards, I reinstalled Sonar X1 and copied over my project files. Roughly 100 hours of work is gone. All of my compressors are gone from all of my tracks, most of the EQ on most of the tracks is gone. It is as though someone selectively went through the tracks and removed entire sessions of work. How do I get my work back? Is there a patch or fix for this?
 
I would be very grateful for any help anyone can give me. This setback is heartbreaking for me, because I have been working on this project for years and was hoping to finally finish it before moving to Australia in two weeks. This setback means I might have to start all over with mixing and mastering, and the thought of doing so makes me feel like crying.

I use the EQ which is embedded in the mixer. I don't know how you would say it. There is a button on each track that has a picture of EQ on it, and you click that button and then can expand that part of the "console" and play around with it and choose between vintage, modern, and pure.
 
For compressors, I click in the little black "plugin" zone on the track and I select the standard one that comes with sonar. I think it's called "Calkwalk Compressor" or "Sonar Compressor."
 
Many of my other effects are gone as well, like vocal doubling. All my effects use the plugins that come with sonar except for those on my bass guitars (which are easy to redo).
 
Thank you for reading and trying to help me!

I will do that! Sunday is the first day I'll have a chance, so I will let you know how it goes.

Do you think maybe it will make a difference if I uninstall X1, then install 8.5 and reinstall X1 so that the installation order follows the same as that I originally had on my old machine?

In X1 the ProChannel was released so the eq will be effected. The default channel eq used to be Sonitus eq and there was a way to upgrade projects from 8.5 to X1 if I remember correctly.

I'm sure someone with the actual full info will drop in.

I hope you still have your original 8.5 projects because there's no way to recover the work once you've saved it in X1. At the time there was a lot of info around about what this was going to do because of the change of going to the Skylight interface and the introduction of the ProChannel.

At this point, unfortunately, unless you made a backup of the original 8.5 projects you may be out of luck.
 
As mudgel noted as soon as you saved the projects in X1 you pretty much made it so they were screwed.
 
Did you not test them before saving them in X1 and backing them up? Do you have no version of the original 8.5 files? A total system wipe/OS install is a big deal. It would have been better keeping them as 8.5 files (which you know worked) and backing them up as opposed to saving them as X1 files before making the system changes.
 
Sadly... without the original 8.5 files you may just have to redo the work.
 
Alternatively... did you create a system image before you wiped the computer? If so you could reinstall that image (which should have preserved the original files on the drive as well as program/system settings). THEN you could save a backup of the original 8.5 files so when you go back to your new setup you could THEN go through the procedures described in this thread.
 
But that is of course a massive PITA and requires you to have made a system image of your OLD system drives... and be sure if you are going to do this that you create system image of your NEW set up before beginning.
 
So...
 
1) Create an image backup of your current drive setups (so you can easily restore it later and make extra backups of any important files just in case... store them on a separate external drive)
 
2) Load the OLD system image (which will totally destroy your new setup but you have an image from step one so you will be able to restore it... if you did it correctly)
 
3) With the old image running and installed save all of your 8.5 files to an external drive so you can open them on your NEW setup (when you reload it)
 
4) Load the NEW image you created in step 1 (which will wipe out the old image again)
 
5) Since your new image should have 8.5 and all its plugins installed it should load up the projects in 8.5 or X1 IF you followed the directions in this thread.
 
 
That is totally fuxxored and a MASSIVE PITA and I don't know if it will even work AND you need to have a system image of your old setup if it's going to work at all.
 
Aside from that (or anyone else being able to come by and offer more suggestions) you'll just have to chalk it all up to a lesson in properly backing up your projects and system... especially before doing drastic things like a complete OS upgrade.
 
I do not envy you at this moment.
 
Good luck and maybe call Cakewalk support to see if maybe they've got some extra ideas.
 
Cheers.
 
Edit: and there is also the option if you are clever enough AND have a system image of your old setup to create a dual boot setup where you dedicate a section of your boot drive (that is not being used) to load you old image on... which you can then boot into, retrieve the 8.5 files, shut down, boot into the new system partition and see if you can get the files working.
 
That's an EXTRA PITA but at least you don't have to wipe out your new setup and/or if all else fails you can keep working on the old system partition until you finish your project(s) or figure a good solution out. Then once you got it all sorted just wipe the old partition out to free up disk space or whatever.