How to correct Corrupted normal template in X1

I am trying to get busy again and I have a project that was created in 8.5 having trouble opening in X1. I was able to load in safe mode but even then could not correct it. Then it would not load in 8.5 anymore after the trouble shooting. I had a backup so I restored that and now it works in 8.5 again.

I made a copy of the project and want to use that to copy all the audio and midi etc into a file created in X1 so hopefully I would not have this trouble again as I work with it. However before I do that I would like to create a new normal template since I have read that there could be similar problems if the template is corrupted.

I did a forum search on the normal template and had lots of hits but most of it is not what I am looking for. I know how to create and save a template. I was wondering if there were any special steps to make sure the new template is ok before I begin to copy all the data to the new file?

Thanks