Un-install Sonar? and Cakewalk use of Sonar folders

[winkpain]

I have asked this elsewhere coming off of an issue with VST scanning, but I am thinking it may be the cause of several little glitchy things for me:

How reliant on the Sonar install (content, folder locations, etc.) is CbB? What is needed from the Sonar install if Sonar itself is no longer used? Or should we get rid of it if no longer needed.

My installation of Sonar was onto a separate, internal SSD drive (drive E:) which was meant to be a dedicated drive for programs. This was advice that I followed at a certain time and installed a few things there. I later thought better of it and started letting programs install where they "wanted" to on the C drive.  CbB was installed on the default C drive. 

I have odd issues with VSTs being flagged as not installed or not installed properly (these are also installed on a separate drive and have always been) despite actually being scanned (custom location is set to be scanned) and actually working. And I sometimes have issues when using the old Cakewalk instruments (TTS, Dimension, Rapture, PSYN II, etc.) and sometimes not. I believe if I want to continue to use these older instruments (Rapture, Dimension, etc.) I would not want to uninstall Sonar. Correct?

So, un-install Sonar? or...

Is there a way I could move (or copy) pertinent elements from that Sonar (X3 Producer) install to appropriate places on the C drive in order to function better with CbB while no longer needing to use Sonar?  Or is all this, as I assume it might be, inviting disaster??

Should I revert (move) all VSTs to the Cakewalk default folder on the C drive??

Edited February 25, 2020 by winkpain

[scook]

All Cakewalk DAWs share registry entries, plug-ins and utilities.

Normally the installers detect previous installation and force upgrades and new installs onto the same drive. This will also happen if the previous DAW was uninstalled without manually cleaning up the registry.

If one manages to get two Cakewalk DAWs installed on two different drives or even on one drive but without the appropriate folders being shared as expected, there is no telling what errors may show up.

All Cakewalk DAWs default to installing on the system drive. This is not to say they cannot run on another drive but AFAIK they are primarily tested with installations on the system drive. There are options to install support files such as the bundled content and sample libraries on other drives, however; due to the shared nature of the products once a decision is made where to locate these parts in one DAW, upgrades and new installs must use the same location. This is due to registry entries all Cakewalk DAWs have in common.

For years Cakewalk upgrades came with a warning that removing the old product after installing the upgrade could result in damaging the upgraded installation. This is still true when installing CbB with an older Cakewalk DAW on the machine.

If I were facing the situation described in the OP, I would perform a clean install of both DAWs, then run the full X3 producer installer, apply the X3e patch (there may be a few plug-in updates in it) followed by CbB allowing both to use defaults. Once fully installed and verified then review the disk usage with an eye to moving samples and other content off the system drive as desired but leave the DAW, support files and plug-in binaries on the system drive.

[winkpain]

1 hour ago, scook said:

If I were facing the situation described in the OP, I would perform a clean install of both DAWs, then run the full X3 producer installer, apply the X3e patch (there may be a few plug-in updates in it) followed by CbB allowing both to use defaults. Once fully installed and verified then review the disk usage with an eye to moving samples and other content off the system drive as desired but leave the DAW, support files and plug-in binaries on the system drive.

This is precisely what I thought of doing, re-installing X3 to defaults and re-installing CbB, but I find that I no longer have the X3 installation files! Over the years since my original install, and about 4 since this latest machine and the last install there, as well as cross country moves between studios with backup drives in both,  I seem to have lost track of the old Sonar files!

Never should have followed that "separate drive" advice! It felt somehow wrong...

[scook]

The installers are still on the old Cakewalk site but if you did not migrate your account in late 2014 it may be difficult to access them.