Frequent "Error. Unkown File." on save

I teach high school video production. We're lucky enough to have three mostly-working Final Cut Express/Final Cut Pro stations. (we have both packages)
On all of them, we often get an error while trying to save that there is an "Unkown File." I check the browser, and we need everything that is in there. Nothing seems "unknown" to me. I check any other open projects and close them. I can't find this mysterious "Unknown" file that is making it impossible to save my student's projects. I had to keep one machine on a whole week hoping the power wouldn't go out. I also have exported work as quicktime files to "save" it.
I really need to find a fix for this. It happens on all my machines and in both Express and Pro.
My background is more in Premier/Media100 and good old-fashioned linear editing. So, some of these issues are new to me. I'll have more questions to post later, but this is the most pressing issue right now!
Thanks!
Seth

Whenever I've gotten an "unknown file" msg it was because the project had become corrupted.
I save multiple versions of the same project (Version 1, Version 2, Version 3 etc) If I get an "unknown file" I go to an earlier version and it usually loads up fine. Something has gone wrong in the later version. The "unknown file" is usually the Project file itself.
What went wrong? Lots of possibilities but I think, for myself, it probably stems from not correctly saving/exiting from the program, like shutting down before the save was completed
I have other people working on my systems occasionally, and although I drill them on proper saving, start ups, exits, back ups, etc, I see them sometimes straying from the path. In a school situation, with lots of students accessing the gear, improper handling issues are commonplace.
I also had that error msg once when I was able to trace it back to a corrupet AIFF file; the thing played properly but for some reason, FCE just hated it. I deleted it, brought in a new version of that audio and all was well. So, altho that AIFF file was in its proper folder, FCE was not able to recognize it

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