How can I recover track files after crash? - SOLVED!!

This is far beyond frustrating.....  I had this computer built & loaded with sonar 8.5.3 by professionals who do just that for a living, Ithe machin has never seen the internet....  ever.   & yet tonigh was the 3rd time I have worked for hours only to have it crash & lose everything I did for the entire session.  I would normal be cursing & throwing stuff, but I think I am pissed past that point somehow.....
 
    When this happened the 2nd time, my big loss was a midi drum track I had recorded & been editing for hours.  about an hr on the phone with cakewalk support elped me get the midi file back from safe mode & pasted into the project again.
 
  This time it was 4 different guitar tracks & about an hour or so of mixing & tweaking, I was listening & looking at the console view (as I was in the other two crashes) when lines started to roll from left to right across the screen & stopping about 3/4 of the way across.  (this same phenomenon happed the two previous times too)    couldn't stop the audio engine & it continued to playback until the audio was done, then the error message appeared & sonar closed when I clicked out of it.    
  I had recorded both a "chuck Mic'd" & "chuck DI" guitar tracks aswell as for our other guitarist chad "chad Mic'd" & chad Di"   which the DI in for guitars I had never done before.  So after the crash I searched for files "chad DI" & found WOV files by that title under something like C:cakewalk/projectfiles/picture.....   but they won't reload into the project.
 
I am going to snap if I can't somehow recover this crap.   I realize that after the other 2 times I should save more frequently...  but a software system capable of 50+ tracks & synths shouldn't crash with 21 audio tracks (a FEW FX plugs) & 1 instance of session drummer for the one midi track......     So, saying "you should save more often" is in my eyes tant amount to telling the guy who just left the dealership & is now stuck on the roadside that he should do more vehice maintenance.
 
Thanks for any help you can offer.  I swear, I am not the D!ck I come off as here.  Just angry.

It has already been discovered by several users that too much editing without hitting save can actually cause Sonar to crash.  See this thread:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1695656

chuck - crashes are usually caused by the soundcard drivers.  since your computer is not connected to the internet - did you download the latest drivers for your fast track and then transfer them over to your DAW computer?

All good advice & I do appreciate it.   But is tere a way to find the actual wave files I lost?   & would they be a cwp fileor what?   I am not even sure what type of file I need to be looking for.

you wouldn't unless you're having problems!

  I am not even sure what type of file I need to be looking for.

CWP files do not contain any audio, only pointers to the audio files. The audio files should be in your audio folder. They will be WAV files. You should also be using Per Project files to save your projects. 


Looking at your computer specs, you are a bit light on memory so you don't have an unlimited number of audio tracks, softsynths and effects with those limited resources. 

I've never had to do this but a way to re construct a song would be to first find the CWP icon for the song. Look for the audio folder which should be next to it. If it isn't then I would copy the CWP file to a fresh location and make a new Audio file manually.
Then find the wave files and copy them to this new folder. Then double click the CWP icon and stand back with fingers crossed. As it loads it will tell you the names of any missing tracks so go look for them.
One piece of info someone else might know is as you record if there is a temporary place those waves are stored until you hit save, I know MS Word does this and the folder is deep in the bowels of the OS>

Johnny's right.  if you're recording something then it's putting a wavefile on the disk regardless of saving sonar.  you just have to find it in the audio folder.  that might be in the global audio folder if the project wasn't named or saved as "per project folders" but it still should be on the hard drive if you recorded audio.

chuck - do a search of your hard drive using windows search and look for all wave files.  *.wav

I FOUND EM LAST NIGHT!    Whoooooohoooo!
Thanks for your help everybody,   I was able to go into mydocuments/cakewalk & then search for the files by name (ie. chuck DI.wav)  I found that it shows the files & had the name of the song after it even though I had not yet save it to that song, so that was very nice to see.   I then inserted a blank track & dragged them in!
Unfortunately the files did not have a "start time" encoded in them so I had to play around with placement & getting them back in time.   Not patting myself on the back but....  mine were all in one take so it was easy, the other guitarist had 4 takes (layers) per track that had to be sorted to get them in order & then nudged around to sync them with the song one at a time.  What a PITA!  Thanks again!

Hey Guys,  I had the same thing happen to me one time.  Since SONAR writes the wav files in the audio folder, they say there temporarily until you save them.  One time I saw the dreaded "SONAR has to close.  Sorry...."  I unplugged my external hard drive.  Guess what?  All the files that would be normally gone were still there!!  So, you might try that one too!

Hal Swinhart
hswin@att.net

bbent,

  I am a relative internal computer newb/****....  so help me out here....  By operating system do you mean Sonar or windows 7?   I am sure I can easily figure out if sonar is on C or D drives but if you mean windows 7.... where do I find what drive that's running on?  & then which ever it is, you're saying I should store all my songs on the opposite correct?

As far as the computer power goes.... I realize (even being a newb) by looking at the stats on others signatures (even though I may not know what exactly it all means)  that my system seems lesser than many....  So I ask you this.  If you had a computer with my stats, what would you upgrade on it?  and what wold you upgrade too? 
Does the (if memory serves) $1300-1400  I paid for the computer seem unreasonable for the systems specs?  Thanks

I had it built by ADK Audio(Avanced Designs of Kentucky).   Based on their reccomendations.   At the time I was looking at buying a sweetwater Tower around  $1500
http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/tower.php
Or the tower LE which only has 1 drive... about a grand.

At the time I don't think the "tower" was equiped with the i5 that it is now, I believe it was also an i3.   I did some research here & on other forums & everyone seemed to reccomend ADK &/or Studio Cat.

I called ADK & they seemed super cool, helpfull, & seemed to really know their stuff.  The machine looked to be better & a few bucks less than the ready-made creation station tower....  so I went with it.

Just to give you a little background  most all of my projects so far have been generally of a 5 piece band & track layouts might be typically as follows:

1 lead vox - w/vocal strip, eq, & comp
2 back vox   "                             "
3 back vox  -"                             "
4 guitar 1 clean -  EQ
5 & 6 guitar #1 distortion - w/ eq & comp
7 guitar 2 clean - eq
8 & 9 guitar# 2 distortion  eq & comp
10 & 11 are say bass (mic'd & di)    Eq & comp
12 will be one midi track to record my v drums 
       Then I either run it through session drummer or solo each drum & record it from my V kit as audio track #'s 13-22 (kick, snare, t1, t1, t3, hats, crsh1, crsh2, & ride) I generally like a little more reverb on the snare itself & then add 1 instance of perfect space to the drum bus as a whole, once in a while I will add a 2nd instance of perfect space on the vocal bus as well. I don't do a crazy number of tracks & very little midi work.

I don't think I am pushing the machine as the cpu meter has never jumped over 10% in recording or playback & is generally around 6 or 7%.   So you tell me honestly.... is this machine under qualified to suit my needs?   Was it a bad reccomendation based on what I told them i'd be doing with it?  

& no the price did not include sonar...  All together I spent about (just under) $2,000 on the computer + sonar 8.5.3 + an m-audio fast track pro which goes for about $200.  This was including shipping/taxes etc.

chuck - what is your question?  your last problem it says you resolved the problem with the file locations.

is this your question you're bumping for?

 If you had a computer with my stats, what would you upgrade on it?  and what wold you upgrade too? 
Does the (if memory serves) $1300-1400  I paid for the computer seem unreasonable for the systems specs?  Thanks

if so, I'm trying to decipher what your system really is.  does the "4MB" go with the processor as cache?  or what does the "4MB" mean?  when you say "2 mushkin 2 gig DDR3"  does that mean you have a total of 4G of DDR3 or does it mean 2G?

Ok, then here's the bottom line on what you have:
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz
4G RAM (total)
2 500G Hard drives SATAII

you didn't list it here, but I'm assuming Win7x64 (you might have mentioned this earlier in the thread, I don't remember)

this system is really pretty good.  it's not top of the line, but it should run just fine with multiple tracks, multiple FX and softsynths without problems.

IF you wanted, you could upgrade the RAM (running win7x64 if it were me, I probably would do that) to as much as up to 16G (I personally would probably upgrade to 6 or 8G but probably wouldn't go higher than that).  OH - and it depends on which version of Win7 you have, only the most expensive one goes up to 16G I THINK (anyone can correct me on that)

you COULD also upgrade your processor to an i5 if you wanted.

but as I said, there's NO reason this system shouldn't work fine unless you're really pushing it with RAM heavy softsynths or processor heavy FX.

if you're having problems with it still, I'd recommend talking to ADK about the problems and see if there's not a solution.  especially if they set up Sonar AND the Fast Track Pro for you.  they probably have a good support system based on what you actually purchased and might be able to help you if you're having problems.

there are some plugins that do  not work in 64bit, but mostly only the DX ones (which you probably don't use anyway).  I don't have 64bit OS so I don't have first hand experience at using it to advise you good enough.