Hello, everyone. I am new to the forums, and have a serious problem with my Sonar files. First of all, I am using A Focusrite Pro40 Saffire and I am running Sonar X2 Producer on Windows 8. I have been using Sonar for over a year, and I love it. I have had no issues until now. My files that are saved on an external hard drive will not open in Sonar, and when I open the files in safe mode, I have recurring audio drop-outs that occur at the same time each time I try to play the project. When I try to open Sonar files from my external hard drive normally, I receive an error message stating that either the drive cannot be detected, or my files have been corrupted.
 
I have changed nothing in the system settings or in Sonar, BUT last week I did install Avira anti-virus software and that is precisely when the problems began. I have since deleted the software app (which actually turned out to be very difficult), performed a system restore, and cleared the registry files, but I fear that it may have left my ext. drive with permanent problems. What should I do? Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Ben

It could be a coincidence and have nothing to do with the AV software. Try swapping the cable to the external drive. It may be the drive is failing, hopefully there is a backup somewhere. Copy a project to the internal drive and see if it works.

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I tried copying a project to the internal drive, and tried opening it, but to my disappointment, I received the same error message as before.

Does that project you copied back to an internal drive have its audio clips within the Audio sub-folder of that project file, or is it possible the audio clips are all back in some common folder.
 
I am just sort of wondering if the project file is looking for the audio from back on the external drive, where there is some sort of timeout being determined by Sonar, in accessing data from the slower drive.
 
I wonder if you would still get that error if you created a simple midi-only project and after saving it, moved it to the external drive and then tried to open it again from the external drive.  This would just test to see if the audio data is at the heart of the issues, in some fashion.
 
Separately, is it possible that Windows is using Selective Suspend to disconnect the external drive?  Windows default behavior will conserve power by 'turning off' idle USB-connected devices, after a certain amount of time.
 
I always modify that behavior in the Windows Power Management advanced options, to disable that feature, as I have USB-connected midi controllers and my audio interface is also USB-connected. 
 
Bob Bone

Thanks for your advice, Bob. I will try to create a MIDI project tonight and see if there are any issues. Since I have done some editing on the tracks, how do I render or consolidate a track to make it seamless? I may try to export some audio into a new project to see if the audio drop outs still occur on the tracks.

These are CWP files I hope and not Bundle? 

Yes, CWP files.

Try your back up projects first. 
 
You also may need a faster external hard drive. Make sure your har drive spins at 7200RPM or faster. A 5200RPM hard drive is not good! This combines with the sound card you use and the way you have your sound card drivers set will cause drop outs and make sonar glitchy.
 
CJ

Well, for now I have a computer repairman scanning my external drive for errors, and he says that he may be able to fix the project files if they are corrupt. Wish me luck! If this doesn't work, I guess I will try to forge the midi tracks and re-do the rest.