Random Factory Reset - WTH?

[treeclimbr]

I've been using my PT / ER setup daily lately working on a project, went to start up this morning, same as usual -> start computer, start ER, wait till ER is fully booted, start PT, load current project. Got a "I/O settings have changed since last save" which made me go huh? And I looked over at my ER to see that EVERYTHING had reset to factory settings, including all of my saved presets.

I had the Sweetwater user presets package when I first bought the ER back in January, and I have been systematically overwriting presets with my own ever since. And now they are gone. I've searched the forums and all that I can find that seems related is this thread from 2011:

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=314417

And no, turning off and starting back up again, in every imaginable combination (in conjunction with PT/computer and stand-alone), has not yielded similar results in my presets restored. Just factory settings. And no, very sheepishly, I have not done a back up settings to computer save since February. Yes, my bad, and my lesson hard learned (safe to say that will never happen again).

But for now, moving forward, has anyone else experienced this completely random reset of user presets? Is there any way to recover my presets? Is it in there somewhere? Needless to say I am completely stunned at this and feel like I've been sucker punched ~ how can a supposedly world class piece of hardware be so unstable as to arbitrarily reset itself? (rhetorical, please don't waste your or my time answering that).

Any help, guidance, or practical insight will be most sincerely appreciated.

[junkgear]

I'm sorry to say, but they are gone.
This happened to me once, and it taught me to do frequent backups from now on.

It appears to be a small number of users that have had this happen, and I agree it is strange.

[Benoni]

Yep, happened to me once probably 2 -3 years ago. Hasn't happened since.

Taught me to ALWAYS save to computer when there is anything new in the User Presets before turning off the unit.

[treeclimbr]

Well, puts us in a rare club I guess, though one we'd probably rather not have joined. I've since talked to a couple folks as well with deep ER experience and they hadn't even heard of such a thing happening.

The take away is huge ~ I will never again log out of a session without backing up any changed presets. I'm constantly tweaking and refining, and oh it hurts to start from square one again! Safe to say I'll never get caught like that again (knock on.. a solid body electric!)

Thanks for your confirmation gents, it's truly appreciated. And if anyone is reading this thread just out of curiosity ~ have you backed up your presets lately???