Importing causes instant crash after master timeline deleted

I accidentally deleted my master timeline somewhere along editing a project and now importing any file from any drive into that project causes an instant crash. The only solution I've found is to import the last saved DRP files for the project which is an entire day of time spent. Now I'll save them more than once a day. Any ideas to preserve the edits I've made?

[Peter Chamberlain]

Best to set up auto save with backup to 1 hr.

Best to set up auto save with backup to 1 hr.

I have that set up actually, I just did a lot of work before I had to import anything so I'll lose a lot if I revert. Any workaround ideas?