nvp1971
BTW, I in no way intended to start a holy war about bundles (good, bad, indifferent, etc).  While my implementation and infrastructure for creating backups, testing backups and restore, maintaining multiple copies, and generally being a competent IT guy has improved over time, this is obviously a project where I didn't follow my own rules way back when.  I can't fault Sonar for that.

Thanks for the clarification. There have been several threads about how the bundle format is "flawed" from people who don't understand the limitations of digital storage media. Although bundles are not my first choice for backup, they do work. As long as people think the problem doesn't relate to storage media, then they'll continue to experience problems with backups, whether Sonar or some other program. So I take any opportunity I can to remind people that backup is an ongoing process, not a set-and-forget one.

I don't think that bundles are flawed at all (in as much as we can rely on any binary-packed format -- which we do A LOT), but if I have one comment it would be that there is a void of information about the construction (i.e. the spec) of bundles or a desire to have a diagnostic or repair tool to help recover from a situation where things go wrong.  It's not like the folks who wrote Sonar are hiding these details; I just figure that most times nobody cares so long as nothing goes wrong.
 
Years ago when I was more active on the Cakewalk forums, maybe 2006 or 2007, I could swear there was a detailed thread about bundles and the same kind of issue I'm experiencing now, where Noel himself gave a basic breakdown of the composition of a bundle, how it's basically a gigantic RIFF WAV, how padding is used in the data sections, and so forth.  I keep trying to Google for Noel's detailed response but I'll be darned if it I can find it when I would really probably find my answer just by looking at it.  :-(
 

Most detail I recall about bundle layout http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/1417418

That's exactly the thread I was looking for and somehow could not find on my own.  Thanks, scook!
 
Two interesting takeaways from this thread:

1. Now I understand why certain myths have been mongered about bundles.
2. I will have to dig in deeper with my understanding of how the data section is comprised.  I understand what Noel was saying about the data section being broken down into audio chunks of various bit depths, seemingly ordered from high to low bit depths, but there is still the issue of determining size of each clip (in bytes) or maybe reading each clip to a boundary (maybe the 16-byte zero-padding?).

Very interesting information and thanks for your response!
 
Hopefully my next response with be with findings.  :-)
 
 

Yes to multiple backups and media, and as Paul says to another physical place away from your work area.

mudgel
I believe Cakewalk have some tools they can use to extract audio from corrupt bundles. Best contact tech support

This gets mentioned quite a bit, but it's not so. In the past we could attempt to recover CWP's, but this functionality was integrated into SONAR a few versions ago.

If we did have a tool that could extract audio from corrupt bundles, we would definitely share in publicly as there's no reason to keep that internal.  

nvp1971
That's exactly the thread I was looking for and somehow could not find on my own.  Thanks, scook!
 

Here is the magic Google search string I used
site:forum.cakewalk.com noel bundle riff wave
The thread  with message 1417418 was the first returned

scook

nvp1971
That's exactly the thread I was looking for and somehow could not find on my own.  Thanks, scook!
 

Here is the magic Google search string I used
site:forum.cakewalk.com noel bundle riff wave
The thread  with message 1417418 was the first returned

It's absolutely crazy to me that I could not find this on my own but thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!

nvp1971

scook

nvp1971
That's exactly the thread I was looking for and somehow could not find on my own.  Thanks, scook!
 

Here is the magic Google search string I used
site:forum.cakewalk.com noel bundle riff wave
The thread  with message 1417418 was the first returned

It's absolutely crazy to me that I could not find this on my own but thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!

No it's not crazy!! It was just a very good description scook came up with. I run into this often. I can't find what I am looking for. Iask around and someone finds it. When I ask how they did it when I couldn't, they give me the search "string" they used. And I keep saying to myself, "I have to learn to do that!"

Craig brings up a great point adn I'm going to implment it.
 
Refresh the backups.
 
My project backup strategy is a delta based system. Copy all from DAW to backup deleting from backup all no longer in DAW.
 
The other aha! moment was that I should probably open every project once after any major upgrade from CW (unless a patch was to address a specific project related opening problem).
 
Since I pretty much have upgraded (thus far) for each new version that process insures that at least once a year I will be verifying that all my past projects still "work" .