Sonar X3: Trying to open a recent project that is failing to open, even in recovery mode

Hi, 
I wasn't sure where to post this kind of question.
I have a recent project that I just finished.  I'd spent loads of on a new song and had re-opened the same project many times on my way to finishing it.  Lastly I had bounced most of my instrument plugin tracks into to their own audio tracks within the project just in case sometime in the future the project failed to open due to old plugins not being available.
 
Only a few days later, I seem to be at that point.
My project file seems to hang SonarX3 when I try to open it.  I've even tried to open it in recovery mode (holding down the shift key) and answering "no" to every plugin before opening the project,  and even this approach results in a forever-spinning icon with Sonar never opening the project.
 
I'm desperately looking for some way to recover my project and get back to the point where I was before.   For some reason Sonar is not happy with my project file anymore.  Any advice is greatly appreciated!!
 
I'm using Sonar X3e  on a Windows 7 - 64-bit PC
 
Thanks, --Jim 

Robert, are you suggesting just making a copy of the project file right from File Explorer in Windows, or using some other way in Sonar.   I can't re-save to a new name within Sonar since I can't even open the project from Sonar any longer.
 
I didn't make any intermediate copies of the project along the way so I'm not sure if I can recover an older version.  I'm just wondering if something happened when I bounced some of the VST plugins into audio tracks of their own. This is something that I normally do anyway just to have raw audio versions of every track, and it's never been a problem before.   
 
I'll see if I can recover an older version of the project from my NAS, maybe the auto-back up software saved an intermediate version or something.
 
--Jim 

I had been talking about making a copy of it outside of Sonar, just to create an additional copy.
 
VERY happy you found a version of it, it definitely sucks losing stuff.
 
Most of us here have built up some layers of scar tissue, from losing stuff for one reason or another, and it is always "JUST before I was going to back it up".
 
I URGE you to create and diligently follow some sort of backup process.  I don't myself happen to use the auto-save feature of Sonar, though I have not had any sort of issues with it, I just do my backups manually, and ever week, or when I am finished with any major block of work on a given project.
 
It is infrequent, but sometimes projects have issues - usually from some old plugin kind of thing, and Safe Mode almost always takes care of even that, but once in a while, for no particular reason, a project might have issues opening, and that's where backups come in - the are truly CRITICAL.  You may never be able to get a guitar player to nail some beautiful solo, and you should never put yourself in a position to where losing something could happen.  Myself and most others here have indeed been lazy and have paid DEARLY in the past for not having backed stuff up.
 
Bob Bone
 

Its very rare that actual project files get corrupted. Most of the time its caused by plugins that fail to load their persistence. Sometimes it could be a plugin showing a message (eg, to load a sample library) that is hidden under the app. You can minimize Sonar to check for that. Another test besides safe mode is to try and open the project on a different computer, or to open the project with the audio folder temporarily renamed (so that it comes up with missing audio)
 
If you still have the version of the project that appears to hang send it as a bug report. If it actually is a problem it might be possible to work around it in SONAR. We are always adding defensive code to SONAR to load problem files so this can be useful. 

Glad to hear you actually had a back up plan in place. Too many people still have not learned their lesson as Bob said. Once burned. 
 
I always have at least 3 versions stored. I use a date system.  I even have my entire studio files back up off site. 

Glad you found an older version!
 
Back up, back up and back up after every session. It takes an additional 1 to 2 minutes to do. 
Also, never save as a CWB. always save as a CWP and per project audio files. always do a save as and never copy and paste your CWP projects you may forget to copy the audio folder and without that, you cannot open it.
 
CJ