Bristol_Jonesey


I daren't do that Bapu. I do a lot of trial & error stuff and I'm forever ripping out tracks wholesale. It would be just my luck for autosave to kick in just as I did something I wish I hadn't.

But I do save regularly and often do a save-as and increment the project name.

Hi Colin just FYI, autosave doesn't overwrite your original file it creates a copy called "Autosave of......project name" so even if autosave has saved something you don't want it doesn't matter to your original file which isn't saved until you press Ctrl+S as normal. Think of it as having two versions of the same project at the same time. They may or may not be identical depending on whether you have pressed save or not.

I'm a big user of autosave but since X1 I have noticed that if my system does an anutosave at the same time I change screensets nine times out of ten I get a dropout. Not the end of the world but annoying. I'd still rather have that than no autosave or screensets though.

Karl

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Thanks Karl.

That's a big help and certainly worth bearing in mind, now that I no longer have to worry about disc space.

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More info needed:

Did you create a new project and name it, with folder option?
   If so, the folder is created immediately.

Or did you open a template and start work?
  If this way, then the saved project will be saved with the template name. And in the template folder.

If the folder and the named project are gone I would immediatelly backup the disk, as is, to a new location, and then run a thorough disk scan. And then use a manufacturers utility to test the disk.

@jm - yeah as stated previously the project folder was created and the project file was in it and all associated audio files in the project audio folder when i closed sonar and reopened it.  ran surface scans overnight no errors.  ran file recovery scans yesterday (surface scans as well) the files weren't anywhere to be found. the project folder is still there just totally empty.  bizarre.

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Check under Preferences to see where your default Project Files are set up for.  On installation it may have set it up to C:\Cakewalk Content, which is the normal default location, so if your normal project files are going to a different drive than C: you may be searching the wrong disk to find them.   This is a long shot but may be worth checking.

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Wierd you can't find the project or that it's blank.

In Preferences>File>Folder Locations in the Project files field, there is a directory path listed,  that location listed is the place where you should be looking for your project files? And if you don't find your project there, that is totally wierd.

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Nope just totally disappeared.  I've learned through the years to mess with default file paths of any programs because sometimes program updates or patches don't take into account that users may change them. ;)  Anyway disk scan no errors. File recovery scan yielded no files (using three different utilities).  It looks like when sonar attempted to save a recovery copy of the work that it inadvertently wiped out file locations from the partition or some such...  so i will defer to an earlier piece of advice and click on no if sonar ever crashes again and asks if i'd like it to save a recovery copy of the project.  seems like the easiest answer at this point.  i'll try to recreate the error this weekend.  thanks everybody.  will email tech support to see if they want to take a look at the dump file.

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here are pics of all the project folder locations plus a windows search for files containing the prefix "mecha" which was the beginning of the project name...

http://renaldothedestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/04/pics-of-files-for-sonar-project-that.html

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swamptooth


Nope just totally disappeared.  I've learned through the years to mess with default file paths of any programs because sometimes program updates or patches don't take into account that users may change them. ;)  Anyway disk scan no errors. File recovery scan yielded no files (using three different utilities).  It looks like when sonar attempted to save a recovery copy of the work that it inadvertently wiped out file locations from the partition or some such...  so i will defer to an earlier piece of advice and click on no if sonar ever crashes again and asks if i'd like it to save a recovery copy of the project.  seems like the easiest answer at this point.  i'll try to recreate the error this weekend.  thanks everybody.  will email tech support to see if they want to take a look at the dump file.

 
DANG Dude! You're a glutton for punishment! :)
 
I'd suggest not trying to repo the error and leave well enough alone. When there is a crash, anything can happen.  The last thing you want to do is give a rouge program access to the HD.
 
Just to let you know, I have had the same thing happen using Sonar 8.5. Same results as you.  Had to restore from a backup copy on a different drive.
 
Always click "NO" at that prompt in the future.
 
And I go one further.  When closing out an app when I've forgotten to save before closing (rarely happens) I click CANCEL and return to the app to save.
I have never lost work doing this.
 
CTRL+S is also your friend and frequent backups.
 
 

Not really a glutton for punishment but if it's a bug I want to be able to recreate it and maybe give the CW engineers something to fix...  I mean if it was the process of inserting the soncomp then clicking a certain place in the audio mains it's a bug and should be dealt with right?  Just trying to make a contribution! :)

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This thread certainly has been instructive. While I have not experienced losing work as described, if I had then I would have answered Yes to the prompt, "do you want SONAR to save a recovery copy of your work?". Perhaps that prompt could be improved?

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I had this dissapearing Project data happen in Sonar 8.5 after crashes.
I would lose everything as well, even though Sonar had been Autosaving.
The problem could be replicated.
 
Solution was:
    Name and start the project,
    CLOSE the project after the first AUTOSAVE or MANUAL SAVE.
    OPEN the project again and it would be fine after a crash.
 
 
 
Anyhow, I found that the Project was always recovered if I had CLOSED the PROJECT at least once.
I would lose the data if I hadn't CLOSED the Project and had a crash on my original session.
   
I think that the FAST TRACK ULTRA could be the cause of some of my crashes. http://www.kvraudio.com/f...iewtopic.php?p=4897140 current kvr thread on Fast Track Ultra

what bothers me about this is:  I've had crashes like this before and nothing like this happened, and I've also done some dimwitted things like allowing my assistant to turn the power strip off where the computer was plugged in during a remote session before I saved the project.

In all case, however, all audio is always saved.  the reason audio is always saved is because it doesn't require you to hit the save button (or FILE>SAVE for X1) in order for it to be printed on the hard drive.

any time you're recording audio the audio gets streamed directly to the hard drive and placed in the AUDIO folder immediately.  there's no way around that.  there's no where in memory for a wave file that large to ever exist, so it has to be saved to the hard drive AS you are recording it.

So if the audio itself is missing from the Audio folder then something really screwy must have happened which shouldn't have ever happened in a scenerio like this, OR the user did something to cause it to be deleted.

swamptooth - you show the audio folder in your pics, but you don't show what's actually in that folder.  are there any wave files in there? 

Also, if you'll notice in the preferences, under FILE click on AUDIO DATA and where do you have the GLOBAL AUDIO FOLDER set up to be?  look in THERE for your wave files.  If you have a different drive location than C for the global audio folder then that would be a reason you can't find them by searching C drive.  

and the files should start with the name of your project ONLY if you saved the project before the crash (which you said you did several times).  they will have names like:  mechalazy, vocals 1, mix (102).wave etc.  IF you saved the project at all.  if you did not, sonar will create a name for it, but I don't remember the nomenclature for the default files, it might be "normal..." or something like that.

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+1 for auto save. Also, the recovery file renames itself '...recovery..' so it won't save over your normal save file. Supposed to be in your project file folder but may've been saved to somewhere else. I've run into a rare occasion though where nothing saves even with auto save on. It was in a recovery situation. Rare though. I keep 4 auto save versions, Back up to separate hard drive nightly. Also, before opening a Cake file, I usually copy it then rename the task at hand for that project. Then open it and work and auto-save. Then, no matter where I screw it up, or Sonar screws it up, I have various Copies and auto-save copies and back up copies. Then there's the 8.53 copies to do tuning and timing adjustments with (whilst the timecode plugin fast bounce is DEAD). Like was stated above, auto save won't interrupt the Real important stuff like recording.

hey beagle... thats why i posted a pic of the  picture cache file.  the pic cache stores images of the waveforms that are displayed in the sonar project with the name of the associated audio file.  pic cache shows those audio files did exist but they dont any longer.  give it a try. open a new project drag in a wav file bounce the wav file to a clip and then open the pic cache folder to see how it works.

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yeah so  the trick is don't double click anywhere outside of your soundcard output meter in the mixing console. crashes sonar.  didn't get the file deletion to replicate though.  that one is still buggering me.  

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