Well, the first things I would need to know: Are you talking about WinDraft (for schematics) or WinBoard (for board layout)? And which version of either?
Generally speaking, when you start crowding your pin limit (yes, 500 is crowding an 850 limit) with WinBoard, things can sometimes get a little flaky.
One reason I may have fewer problems is that I'm an old guy and have never completely trusted personal computers. So whenever I'm doing something that creates a file, I automatically hit CTRL + S anytime I make a significant change. (I started doing this over 25 years ago, I think with WordStar on a CPM system--it was a Kaypro. It's still a habit.)
Another reason I likely have fewer problems is that I run all of my IVEX stuff on a separate computer that does nothing else but schematic and board work--it's a cheap old clunker (Compaq Presario 1700), but it does the job just fine, since I don't use it for word processing and Internet and E-mail and who knows what else. All the programming duties on the bench are handled by another even older clunker (Compaq Armada 1700).
You may have noticed with WinBoard that, anytime you move something, it recalculates.
The simplest recovery (if you've saved the file regularly) is to close the file, re-open it, and simply re-import the netlist.
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