Understand that I am a total noob.

Ok, with that established,....

I was finally finished with a project I was working on (my first one, in fact, which has been my learning project for PD12 as well), and I tried to produce it. After nearly 90% completion in H-264 AVC, PD12 informs me that it cannot complete the producing due to some elements not being supported by the format chosen. I next tried producing in plain old AVI, and after a very short few moments, I got the same message.

Upon attempting to go back to the edit page to investigate further, PD12 locked up and wouldn't respond to any keystrokes or inputs.

I restarted the computer.

Upon attempting to retrieve the project to try again,...all the video from the project was missing. The title tracks, music track audio tracks and inserted photos were still there,...but no video. Even the master file from which I originally pulled the video to create the separate project file was empty.

Can anyone explain WTF happened? There is no situation in human relations that cannot be solved with a suitable application of high explosives.