Ok, back when I updated to windows 10, I then upgraded to a solid state drive then did a fresh install of windows 10 along with everything else.
 
Of course now when I load up older project I often get the message of missing plug ins. Not a problem to re-instantiate them, but I have no idea which patch and or if I modified them.
 
I still have the old hard drive. What I would like to do is boot it up and save all the relevant plugin setting as presets with clear and descriptive names, then back up all said presets so I can quickly get my old projects back in working order.
 
The question is how to I locate all of them?

Sixfinger
I still have the old hard drive. What I would like to do is boot it up and save all the relevant plugin setting as presets with clear and descriptive names, then back up all said presets so I can quickly get my old projects back in working order.

 
Been there, done that. In my case it was because I had been making use of the now-defunct DX versions of certain softsynths in my projects rather than the VST versions. I had to spend a lot of time opening projects on an old OS boot and saving settings so that I could add them back again when I open the same project on my current system.
 
I always save the project's VST settings in a subfolder within the project's folder rather than with the VST's own folders. This makes them easier to access and avoids the risk of them being deleted during a reinstall.

You could search windows.
Find out the extension of the preset by doing "save as". That will show you the extension for the preset.
Then use that with a *.  So, search like, *.clr (* dot clr)

well mostly if I change things I'll save using the little disc Icon at the top of the plugin UI.  I don't know where or what extension is used for that type of preset.
 
Looks like I need to find a better way.

Different VSTs each store their built-in settings differently. There is no consistency with formats or file locations. But there is no need for you to know such details if you simply "Save As" either within the project folder or in some other convenient location where you can easily retrieve it later.
 
I am assuming that you are wishing to save your own custom settings for subsequent use. Apologies if I have misunderstood what you are aiming to do.

Hello,
the last time I did  a ( disk- ) PC change -to avoid the search 
for presets ,samples aso- I bounced or freezed every track
of the project so that I got a copy of every track in these unfinished projects.
Also making notes about the special edted synths and fx.
 
Other  projects were nearly done before the system change
and so I freezed every track, vsti aso in that projects to get a copy of them in this projects either
 
After preparing all projects on the old system,
I had still a lot to do on the new PC to make the songs running again,
but got all together on the new machine.
Have a much better overview and structure in my work since that time.
 
 
 
 

Oh, I found this in the tip of the week
 
The Presets created using the Sonitus Preset Manager live in C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Plugins as .ini files. They include the name of the Sonitus effect, e.g., FxModulatorDX.ini. If you need to fix permissions, right-click on the file, choose Properties, and under Security, enable “Full Control” permissions for everyone.
 
Thanks for that Craig, another piece of the puzzle.

Hey Kev, now that I've had a chance to try out saving as as you've suggested, Nice! This will help immensely.
 
Pragi, I couldn't agree more there is great value in freezing the tracks to audio. As close to future proofing as you can get.

Sixfinger
 I don't know where or what extension is used for that type of preset.

 
As I said above, Go to the effect (in sonar) you want to find the extension of, pretend you're going to save a preset, click save (preset), there you will see the extension. Then use (star dot *) to search windows. i.e.: *.extension

As noted above, each vendor implements his own preset format and location. Some are binary files, some are generic XML or text. Here are some examples I wrote down the last time I did a migration and had to hunt them down:
 
FabFilter  .ffp
Kontakt  .nka
iZotope  .xml
U-he  .h2p 
Spectrasonics  .fxr_rmx, .filter, .arpeg, .osc, .lfo, .env, .db
Nomad Factory  .mfxprg
IKM  .db
ValhallaDSP  .vpreset
Rapture and Dim Pro  .prog
Voxengo  .cbf
 
Most Cakewalk presets can be found under \ProgramData\Cakewalk. Many others are in \Users\{UserName}. Some do such a good job of hiding presets (e.g. Meldaproduction) that I never did find them.
 
I found the easiest way to locate a plugin's presets folder was to open the plugin and select "Save As" as if I were saving a new preset. That would (usually) open a standard Windows file-save dialog the thus reveal the destination.