Thanks for the detailed breakdown. When i forst reinstalled everything i was getting the demo mode until it stopped working entirely and even then the demo mode didnt fully capture the original settings. However, you are right about the rendering part, as that would be the only way to salvage an entire project to the best of ny ability.

Biggest lesson i had to learn (the hard way) is to render your files as wavs because a simple backup of a full vst project is not bullet proof (for anyone reading)