I humbly intro this topic because I think it's hard to bring up and have a discussion without sounding like it's advocating, but if it might help troubleshoot some probz for the kids I think it might help.
 
Long long ago when I first started working with music I bought myself a copy of Cake Pro Audio 5. When VSTs came out I didn't have the scratch and did what most sassy teens did: I downloaded a crap-ton of cracked software.
 
Now, a billion years later, I've "gone legit" and purchased all my software. Eventually I found not only did it help me ethically as I grew up, but as I depended on my rig for projects and gigs it was simply worth the investment to have the cleanest and most fully functioning (and tech support eligible) software. 
 
Except, older projects I've been dragging along for some time used some versions of certain plugs that didn't seem to appreciate transferring over. As a result, I've had a few versions of Komplete sitting around my studio (the most recent for me was v9) that I've never installed because of the delicate DAW ecosystem I have that is currently fully functional. 
 
I've seen similar setups with folks who didn't want to use iLok. They would buy Waves bundles and then install the cracked versions to avoid the mishaps with iLok technology (which seems to have righted itself over the years).
 
Anyhow, now I'm trying to figure out the best scenario for gutting the older cracked copies and installing my legally purchased copies (because, lets face it, I need to get my greedy little hands on all those new Kontakt sounds!!). But, I don't want to bring my DAW down and have to rollback to a backup image or any of that crap. 
 
This is one of the many reasons why I've always been feature requesting better asset mgmt tools. Imagine being able to tell SONAR to save all the patch ID info, and when using Replace Synth have a checkbox that tries to push that info out in case the replaced synth is a more recent version of the same synth (for example). 
 
But I figured I'd throw this out there in case anyone else has had this experience and anything to share about it. 
 

It's not clear exactly what your problem is. "plugs that didn't seem to appreciate transferring over" is pretty vague. My initial suggestion would simply be to remove the contraband and install the legit software. If the VST IDs match, they should replace the synths and effects in-place with no further intervention necessary. If they don't match, I guess that is where you have a problem, because you want to migrate settings over between 2 plugins which - to Sonar - appear to be completely unrelated. This is relevant for more than just replacing cracked software - eg. I've had Dimension LE patches that I wanted to be loaded in Dimension Pro - but I don't think there is a way of achieving this. If there is no official way to transfer settings then I'm sure there is some technical way of forcing it - eg. by hacking the VST IDs in the project file - but that's likely to risk corrupting your project.

+1 on removing all contraband. At one point I dabbled in warez and if anything I learned that the method of cracking software varied from tricking computer to thinking a dongle is present to simply figuring out the  serial algorithm.  Who knows what oddities are still lurking in your registry and hidden files. A clean start i much easier to navigate and if any old project files don't  work, tracing the problem involves less variables.

You don't know what the cracks have done to your system, or what they'll leave behind...I doubt they have clean uninstall routines but I don't know for sure. I would think the safest option would be a clean system drive install. You have Windows 7 so if you want to move on to Windows 8 or 10 you're going to have to do it anyway. You might consider waiting until 10 appears and move to that. 

...wicked
 
 
Except, older projects I've been dragging along for some time used some versions of certain plugs that didn't seem to appreciate transferring over. As a result, I've had a few versions of Komplete sitting around my studio (the most recent for me was v9) that I've never installed because of the delicate DAW ecosystem I have that is currently fully functional. 
 >>>>>>>
I've seen similar setups with folks who didn't want to use iLok. They would buy Waves bundles and then install the cracked versions to avoid the mishaps with iLok technology (which seems to have righted itself over the years).
 >>>>>>>
Anyhow, now I'm trying to figure out the best scenario for gutting the older cracked copies and installing my legally purchased copies (because, lets face it, I need to get my greedy little hands on all those new Kontakt sounds!!). But, I don't want to bring my DAW down and have to rollback to a backup image or any of that crap. 
 
 

If you ask me, you abandon ANY old project, especially if it contains "versions of certain plugs...." and MOVE FORWARD.  No time like the present to have a clean, up to date system and software and working on NEW material.  If the older stuff was produced using "version of certain plugs....."... why would you want to continue on.  That stuff imo had a "bad" start anyway.
 
Start a fresh slate and call it a day.  BTW, like Craig mentioned, I'd wipe the drive and start fresh as well.  Get that "stuff" out of your drives.  Better yet, let StudioCat build you a new system and treat yourself for starting fresh.

Good luck.  

The approach I use to cover my back if I need to open an old project that used plugins I may no longer have installed or that changed drastically as new versions came out is to bounce every track down to a new audio track and add those tracks into the project along with the original tracks with plugins.

That way even if a plug used on a track isn't there anymore at least I have audio processed by it should I ever want to do some remixing or re-use some of an old project.

Hey thanks for the replies folks!
 
I guess relevant info from what I've read is:
Yups, I plan on a new DAW build with a nice hardware upgrade when Win10 comes out. I'm thinking it's time for an i7 and some more RAM, I think this time I'm even gonna get a new case! This beige rectangle I've been looking at for years is a little grody. Anyhow, a "fresh start" on all things and a full move to 64bit for my main stuff going forward is a given...already started actually (hence this topic). The last DAW rebuild, which was a bit of a fiasco, I culled a LOT of VSTs, both old cracked junk and freebies that I never use. It was a massive change in the "fueng shui" of my DAW world. Light and clean. Except of course as I went through old projects that would only work (caveat: I didn't test this terribly thoroughly) with the version of the crack that it was made with I installed those from archives. The NI stuff is the only remaining suite that I've bought but haven't installed.
 
As for the old projects, a while back I went through most of them and bounced audio down in case I ever wanted to pick them back up. I have an ongoing history of partial projects that just have riffs or partials I often go back to in order "crate dig" for cool things to build. There are hundreds of these, which is why without some kind of bulk utility I'm not really into the idea of manually updating each one. 
 
I just wonder if anyone else who might have a similar story handled their projects OR whether they learned anything in the uninstall/install process that was worth noting.
 
 
 
 

Get rid of the warez.
If those old projects are truly beloved, convert 'em  to midi files
and start hacking the forest.
 
I've never used 'em but I extend the above offered advice to
"free vst's" as well with a few RARE exceptions;
esp. if they aren't 64 bit.
SONAR already has more than enough to do quality work.
 
I've always been too paranoid to even have my DAW "connected"
unless I just had to(e.g. the CCC) Grrrr...
 
As for Ilok... God, I just hate challenge response software but
I "deal" with it.
 
Hell, Windows XP would force you to "RE-AUTHORIZE" it
on every major hardware change("Hey! You didn't tell me you got a new motherboard...DENIED!").
 
jm2c
MEL
 

OldTimerNewComer
Get rid of the warez.
 

I think that was kind of stated in the original post. What I'm interested in is the process for doing so. Or, perhaps more importantly, the consequences for projects.

I think the bounce idea to get all of the older audio generated from any projects that may contain cracked components makes a lot of sense - to at least preserve the sound those components created.  That way, you would at least have that as a starting point, if anything didn't convert to the legitimate copies.
 
I would add a suggestion to the above - I would first make note of effects and their presets/settings for any track that uses a cracked synth, and then first bounce with those effects present, so that you have your 'reference track', and then I would remove all effects from the original track and bounce again, so that you could still save the cracked synth's generated sound, AND be able to change things for mixing after the fact.  (only bouncing with the effects present would lock you into the effects settings at that time with no way to really tweak them).
 
Just some thoughts - good luck, glad you went legit, as well.
 
Bob Bone