No offense ml, but the only one to blame for an hours worth of work lost, is you. I'm honestly not trying to be harsh...but you don't lose work if you save often. I've had Sonar crash on me many times and have only lost work when I didn't save several times within the project. That's the only way you lose data in my experience.
As for your 2-3 minute load time, it could be a plugin. Especially if you are using Sonar 64. If it's a bridged plugin, it very well could take a few seconds for it to load up. I have one in my arsenal that takes 22 seconds to load no matter how big or small the project is. If I don't use that plug, I don't get the long load time. You may want to try experimenting with opening your project in Sonar's safe mode.
Just hold the shift key down while selecting and clicking on your project. This will make Sonar open in safe mode and it will ask you which things to include in your project one at a time. Try killing each one one at a time and then opening to see if the project opens any faster. When you see it open up as fast as it should, you know the plug that is giving you an issue is the problem.
Your pc is way fast enough, no worries there. Sonar is a VERY stable DAW for most of us. There are several issues you could be having here. Having to enter into preferences mode and pressing "ok" every time tells me something is not right with your soudcard or midi devices. I have used Sonar and Cakewalk products since they came out on floppy disk. I have NEVER had a sound problem even when using a SoundBlaster.
When I HAVE had a problem with sound or my midi devices, it was always the devices themselves that were at fault...NOT Sonar. So you may want to do a little research before you ask someone to "direct you to a stable DAW". You'll get quite a few responses like mine because though Sonar has its issues with some systems, most of the time (even though there are legit issues for people) it really is user error or a conflict within sound devices or other services you may have running....drivers may need to be updated....it can be anything.
Not to be a dik, but it's obvious you may need to do a little research and learn about this stuff before you just bash on Sonar. 4 quick lines of text doesn't give any of us enough information to help you really. The key to getting help on this forum is being as informative as possible with the issues you are having without blaming Sonar until you have grounds to do so. 8 times out of 10, when you give the right information on here, someone will make you aware that the problem is on your end and you'll wind up with your foot in your mouth with an "ahhh" moment. :)
-Danny