So I recorded some work and then play it back to adjust levels and add fx. All of a sudden I get very LOUD white noise. Almost like the project dropped out and then I just get full volume white noise. Any clue what I am doing wrong? Another thing that may be part of the same problem is that for that last two sessions of recording I get a play back that sounds like a cd that is skipping. I know that sounds weird, but that is the only way I can describe it. It sounds like that digital skip or jump/repeat sound that you heard years ago for the first time when your cd player malfunctioned with a cd in it. I am going to use a different external hard drive this weekend to see if it solves the problem. Thanks for your advice.

Doesn't sound like a hard drive problem to me - it sounds more like a configuration problem with your interface/driver settings.

Has this just started happening or have you always had the problem?
Have you made any changes to the system recently?
Is your Firewire chipset from Texas Instruments (TI)

  This is new. No new settings. Not sure of chipset.

Are you running in ASIO mode?

In Sonar 7 there were various updates that had a big impact on ASIO for some sound cards. If you have already updated to 7.0.2, try the 7.0.3 hotfix.

I can't remember if I am running in ASIO or not. I know I played with both and didn't really notice a big difference, although I am a newbie. I think I defaulted to the recommended setup that was outlined somewhere on the Cakewalk site. I have the 7.0.2 update, but not the 7.0.3 hotfix. I can try that, but Sonar states that it addresses only one specific problem regarding "Unable to open audio playback device. Device may not support the current project's audio format or may be in use". Maybe another visit into the optimization tech sheet is the answer. I need to see if I changed something when optimizing months ago that may have an affect on functionality today. It did not rear it's ugly head until months after I did the optimization changes. I hope I can remember what the original settings were or default settings. Thanks

It's probably no help but I have occasionally had this with external sound interfaces, like the M-Audio Fast Track or the Lexicon Lambda. (The latter being much worse than the former.) You might reduce or eliminate the problem by increasing the buffer size, or removing background processes that might interrupt the data flow, etc.

About 7.0.3: agreed; don't bother. Your OP sounds generally like an app vs. driver bug, and back in 7 there was this "motorboating" problem (an intermittent artifact on playback) that sounds like it resembles your CD skipping. Which interfaces or drivers were affected, I don't remember. Worth searching for if you're inclined. If you've been fine with 7 and your problems only recently started, then your recent history of driver updates, new plugins, etc. might be important. Another thought though, did you say the recordings were corrupted or just playing them back in Sonar sometimes give you the CD-skipping symptom?

Actually I recall having a similar issue of white noise when running my Delta44 in WDM mode on an older version of Sonar. I recognized the OPs symptoms, but I couldn't remember what caused it. I'm pretty sure it was when I was using WDM mode. He definitely should switch to ASIO mode if he isn't using it already. 

I havent seen 7, I started using at 8.

I have noticed FX or Plugins that have caused the noise for me with nothing playing.

Do you have FX inserted that could be a possibility as far as the noise?

Is there a way to bypass all FX at once to see if it clears?

Just thinking out loud here