Jim Roseberry
Since the issue is only happening in the 64Bit version of Sonar X3, could the issue be related to a problem when scanning a 32Bit plugin?

I'll remove the directories of all the vst plugins within Sonar and try without any. If that works, I'll add one directory at a time and see what happens and report back.
Thanks for your input Jim!

Didn't you set scanning to manual and boot Sonar into safe mode earlier on ? :)
That's a good idea anyway :)

CakeAlexS
Didn't you set scanning to manual and boot Sonar into safe mode earlier on ? :)
That's a good idea anyway :)

Yes I set scanning to manual but I'm not aware how to start Sonar in boot mode, only know how to load projects in safe mode.

Do you have ASIO3ALL installed? Some other people have reported problems with that and X3.

rontarrant
Do you have ASIO3ALL installed? Some other people have reported problems with that and X3.

Absolutely not, I'm using a MOTU as an audio interface and I know better than to use ASIO4ALL!!!

So you haven't tried ASIO5ALL in boot mode? (J/K )

CakeAlexS
So you haven't tried ASIO5ALL in boot mode? (J/K )

Not until Sonar X5 comes out...
Merry Christmas!!! I've been sidetracked playing my Larrivee...

It's a Christmas miracle, I solved it!

Apparently it had to do with the Jmicron JMB363 controller built-in to the motherboard (an Asus P7P55D Pro), an ide hdd that I had connected to it and Independence Pro.

The ide hdd was a leftover from my old daw that I had the Independence Pro Majestic Bass library saved to.
I replaced that hdd with an extra sata drive that I had lying around after copying all the contents to it, reset and rescanned and now Sonar X3dx64 is loading in about 20 seconds instead of 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Who ever woulda thunk?

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and staying with me through the end.

Rockin! Happy Festivus...

Glad its mainly sorted. I did suspect it was disk related.
However 20 seconds is still too long, unless you are loading with a custom template or project.
My system drive is only moderately fast and it takes 5-6 seconds to load SONAR X64 at max under Win8.