Thanks to you and everyone else who tried to help me.  I have tried everything and still  can't open those 8.5 files.  (sigh)

Well, if your friend can open them on his computer, all is not lost. 

How are you trying to transfer them to your computer? 

He can load the CWB, but save as a CWP and use Per Project Folders so you will get a folder that contains the project in CWP format and the audio in a subfolder under the main folder. You should be able to transport them to your computer that way. 

As for the Goliath plug-ins, if you open the project in safe mode, it should ask you if you want to bypass the plug-ins. If that works, then you could always add the plug-ins back in. 

As for the WRK files, those must be very old because Sonar hasn't used that format in a long time. They switched to CWP formats years ago. However, most of my old WRKs can open, but a few could not. I suggest loading any WRKs you can and then save as CWPs. 

The problem is in mono and stereo waves in the same project. Computers that uses windows 7 any version of Sonar will have this problem. You can not open a file bundle (bun) old or new it has mono and stereo waves within it. According to an article I read, it seems that windows 7 has a incompatilidade with RIFF files already reported to microsoft. Solution: You need a computer to hand with good old windows xp to open these files. Bye Mamadoc - Brazil

HELP! Sonar X3 freezes when I try to load my old Cakewalk Home Studio 9 .wrk or .bun files. I have about 200 songs to work on. If us old cakewalk users can't load our old projects, why should we stick with Cakewalk products? This is a real disappointment if it can't be worked out. What the heck should I do???