konradh
Thanks, guys. Y'all are awesome.

Hey, we've all been there at one point or another, regardless of what platform or software we use. Goes with the territory of getting computers involved.

 
 

*.WOV files are the contents of the picture cache.   Had you tried re-pointing that to a different location and/or drive?
 
Also, if you're able to get that far, I wonder what would happen if you simplified the project/track/clip names (in a copy) to make them shorter and removed the dashes.   Seems a bit doubtful, but given your current issues...
 

Konrad, I'd recommend trying the least invasive things first. You didn't mention which drive had disk space problems...but if it's the C drive and the problem is the picture cache (I have no reason to believe it is or isn't, other than a tech mentioning it), then saving to a different drive would cause the same problem because no matter what drive you're saving to, you're still saving pictures to and loading them from the C drive. Also the documentation I referenced tells how to increase the size of the picture cache. If the size of the folder equals the maximum space allocated, that could be a problem as well. But these are all things you can check out without having to make any fundamental changes to your setup. You can park the picture file anywhere, as long as you tell Sonar where to look for it in the AUD.INI file, as described previously.
 
Removing a string library is something that your projects likely reference. That kind of thing should be done as a last resort and only if you suspect the string library is the source of the problem. Usually a library is going to be an innocent bystander. There are other ways to reclaim disk space. Also I don't know if you tried archiving the tracks to help isolate if a particular track is causing Sonar to stop.
 
Finally, the filename without the disk references is 69 characters long; with them, 103 characters. Microsoft says "Windows usually limits file names to 260 characters. But the file name must actually be shorter than that, since the complete path (such as C:\Program Files\filename.txt) is included in this character count. This is why you might occasionally encounter an error when copying a file with a very long file name to a location that has a longer path than its current location." So you're probably okay, but just be aware there are limits.
 
I get the feeling a lot of these attempted fixes are making the problem worse because the problem has not been defined closely enough. I think we need more diagnostics. For example before counting out the picture cache as a possible source of problems, we need to know where it lives, how much space it takes up, and the capacity of the drive it's on. Then it's possible to decide whether it might be an issue or not. If not, then it's time to gather data on the next option. If so, then you can try moving it and seeing if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the thorough answer and sorry to take so much time.  I did some things before reading your post, so here's where we are:
 
• I already deleted Hollywood because I wasn't using it due to poor performance from a spinning drive.  The only projects I have that use it already have the strings recorded as wavs.  I plan to reinstall it on an SSD drive.
• Deleting Hollywood gave me 40% free on the D drive.  (I have one physical drive partitioned into a C and D.  Samples and projects are on D.  Op Sys and Cakewalk are on C.)  Until this moment, I was too dumb to think about whether the caches are on C or D and how full C is.  I know it wasn't maxed out.
• I never name clips and the Kontakt track was simply called J Bass, so I don't know where the long name came from.  (I also always rename synths in the rack to match the tracks so the Kontakt synth was also called J Bass.  It was Scarbee, by the way.)
• This morning I deleted the Kontakt track from the project.  My thinking was 1-if the project worked, I could always recreate the bass since I have the MIDI saved off and 2-if didn't work, I just wouldn't save it with the deleted bass,
• I played the project with a now 40% free drive and no Kontakt track.  The project played a little farther and then stopped at a different place.  Kontakt locked up and finally crashed.  No error message.
• My current thought is that the project is lost.  I will have to go to an earlier version and recreate all my changes.  (I have saved the MIDI so it is basically all the mixing and all the Melodyne edits.)  If the issue is pervasive and keeps the old version from working, then I am totally screwed.
 
Last thought: if disk space were the issue, why didn't Sonar give me some kind of warning or error when I saved the project.  That is scary.
 
Thanks again.
 
UPDATE:  Tech now tells me cleaning off my D drive won't help (although I needed to anyway since it was over 99%) because the PictureCache and Wave Data are on C.  (Same physical drive partioned into C and D.)  Cleaning C will be easy.
 
He also sent me a link to a form post about the RIFF error that may help.  The link is on my phone.  I will check it out later and share in case it helps anyone else.
 

hi Konrad, hang in there...
To get the missing audio you can just copy the 'audio' folder from your old project to the folder where your new project is, don't let some missing audio clips get you ;)
Or search your computer for the missing files, if you find 1 you have them all right there....copy past the location or just copy the audio files to your new location.
Had a few projects that crashed when I did audio snap or made sample rate changes....especially in combination with multiple VST sometimes Sonar cannot read the project and crashes.
I found that Sonar not being able to properly read the project is more often the problem rather than a 'real' problem like a software prob....so many VST's and they sometimes not work well together and Sonar fails to read it.
good luck
 
 

Thanks very much, Wouter.  Sounds like a good thing to try.

BTW I assume you have the latest Kontakt update, but you might want to check the NI service center just in case.

Will do.  Thx

Well, all the tech's theories about the C drive being too full were logical, but I just checked C and it is (and has been) 53% free.  Since I cleaned my D drive up, it is 40% free.
 
Either D and not C was the problem or this had nothing to do with disk space.  After I cleaned off D I was told D didn't matter and C was the problem.  So, I am back to square one.
 
However, this thread could be worth researching:
http://forum.cakewalk.com...e-SOLVED-m2690113.aspx
 
QUESTION:  I am reading about the PictureCache being too large and also about cleaning out the contents.  Is it OK to empty the picture cache?  I have lots of projects that do not display the waveforms except as straight lines.
 
BTW, I cannot find the Picture Cache on my machine.  I have searched for every variation I can think of.
 
EDIT:  The error message I got referred to pictures on the D drive.  If that means "Cakewalk Projects | Pictures" then the file is not large and it is not on C.  Here's how big it is:
 
598 MB (627,624,248 bytes)
 
The error message said:
 
RIFF File Open failed:
D:\Cakewalk
Projects\Pictures\Project1--Kontakt-5-1-Kt--st--1-Kt--st--1--Mix--2359--1cfc01390287334.WOV