Are crashes known to damage plugins?

My mod was working fine. The only work I have done since the last sucessful test is to replace the silent wavs and lip files with fuz files (from the vanilla BSA). Also to repeat the successful part of the mod elsewhere. One would not affect the other as they work independantly. So could a crash ruin a loaded esp file?

i think only if it crashes in the middle of a save, then it corrupts the plugin.

as a rule of thumb, always make frequent backups regardless

I would also assume that it can only do damage if it crashes during a save. It may corrupt things if it randomly crashes, but since it's crashing it doesn't save so all the corruption is lost when you reload the un-saved plugin.

I can't remember if I was saving or not at the time . The plugin still loads into the CK, and skyrim loads it. For some reason, the dialogue that I added to a vanilla NPC will no longer appear. I checked the condtions and it all seems fine. CK does automatically save a copy in the skyrim\backup folder, so hopefully one will work. I did a ton of work since the last working version, wouldn't want to lose it all

Looks like all the CK generated backups are not working too. CK only backsups the last 10 saves, then rewrites overthem. Luckily I have one of my own backups but its almost like starting over again - 2 days lost. I hope I can reuse all those hidden scripts fragments I generated. I guess there's no tools to perform emergency surgery on plugins is there? I'm sure there was something for Oblivion.

Guess its a good warning. If CK crashes on a save, don't trust the plugin. Even if it appears to work in the CK & still loads in the game. Something may well be wrong somewhere.

One of my Oblivion .esp died in a crash, not a kit crash though.

I launched once the game with the CS open, PC froze (not because of the .esp) so i was forced to restart the computer. When i opened the .esp, it was a rain of errors messages and the mod was dead. I had to restart from a very old back up.

Don't know if it could be the same with the CK, but i don't take risks, and close the kit anytime i test.