Hey all, I just sent the following email to tech support, but thought I'd run it by y'all while I wait for their answer. If anyone has any ideas, please feel free. as mentioned below, I couldn't find the online tutorial on how to import the MASTER.INS file. If anyone knows where that is that'd be great. Thaknks, Dave

Hello,

Yesterday while working in HX6XL I must have done something (but I can't remember what) and now I get the following message everytime I open up the program: "Cannot open MASTER.INS. No instrument definitions will be available." After I clik OK, the Tip of the Day box appears, but inside is says: "Cannot find the TipOfTheDay.txt file"

I can't find the online tutorial that shows you how to import the MASTER.INS file. So in the meantime here's what I've done:

1. Uninstalled both HS4XL and HS6XL
2. Cleared the registry of all Sonar/Cakewalk/Home Studio files
3. Reinstalled HS4, and the VST patch.
4. Reinstalled HS6.

I'm still having the same problem.

Bump... Anyone?

I'm just talking out loud and taking a shot here...

I can't imagine what these two files have in common, other than the fact that they are in the same folder. One of the upper level folders where they reside (the Application Data folder) is hidden, so they would be extremely hard to erase by accident. With that being the case, the problem would seem to lend itself to being possibly an application or registry error.

Not sure how windows literate you are, but since you said that you cleared the registry of all sonar.. files, I suspect you have at least some experience in these matters... Did you look to see if the files were actually still there?... Were you doing something such as deleting the AUD.ini file or any other files when this happened? Does HS4 still work?

These files reside (in HS6) in the C:/Documents and Settings/xxxxx/Application Data/Cakewalk/SONAR Home Studio 6 folder (where xxxxx is the user name you installed the program under). Also, as I mentioned before, the Application Data folder is hidden so you will not be able to see these files in windows explore unless you have the "show hidden files and folders" option checked in Explore under Tools... Folder Options... View... "show hidden files and folders". You could also do a search on the hard drive, but under "more advanced options" you need to be sure that the "Search hidden files and folders" box is checked or you will never find them.

Both of these files are text files and I would have to believe that re-doing the install should have re-installed them. Looking at the Master.ins file on my system it looks like it is pretty generic and the TipOfTheDay.txt file is definately generic, so they could possibly just be recopied back into the proper folder if they were missing... But with that being said I suspect that there is more to it than that...

Deneen

edit).. Rearrange Paragraphs... Grammar

There was another thread where someone reported a similar problem, but it isn't clear (to me at least) as to how his problem was resolved. It must have been cleared up though, because he has posted other questions as recently as a few days ago.

Here is that thread. http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1016951&mpage=1&key=󸱞

I bumped that one with a question to him... If he responds it could be helpful in your situation.

Deneen

Hey, thanks man. I saw that thread when I did a search on the forums and noticed there wasn't a clear resolution so thanks for bumping that back up. I still haven't heard from tech support.

I did a search for the master.ins file and it didn't come up. followed the folder path and it wasn't there. The tip of the day .txt document was, though. I did 'un-hide' the folders as well.

Thanks again, I'll keep plugging away.

He had emailed me about this problem as well and I didn't have anything else for him to try except call CW Tech suppt, I haven't heard back from him since he was supposed to do that, so I would assume that he got it fixed, but didn't report back what fixed it.

Thanks Beagle. I'll just wait for Tech Sup. and see what's what. I'll post after I hear from them.

I'm sorry i did not report on my progress, its been chaos over here, lots of projects, and Cakewalk has been put on the back burner. To restore the Master.INS file, restart and hold down the shift key. This will copy the file over from cabs. Worked for me. I hope it works for you too.

Thanks Roddy! That did the trick. At first I thought you meant hit shift and restart the COMPUTER. But once I realized you meant hit shift and start up the program it reconfigured everything!!

And I never did hear from tech support

The shift while starting Sonar works. Thanks to whoever figured that one out. It seemed to have copied shared files to correct location.