I just downloaded a trial version of CorelDraw x7 and am trying to learn how to use it. seems like everytime I quit the application it saves a "backup" file of the project I was just working on. when I try and open my project again from the original files it won't allow me to, but it will open it from the backup. then after I finish working again it saves a 'backup of the backup'. am I doing something wrong?
The real file should have a CDR file extension, eg somefile.cdr and in normal circumstances you should not need to open the backup_of_somefile.cdr.
You could start by checking the sizes of the real CDR file (in windows explorer) and make sure it is not 0 bytes.
Another thing you could try is to go to tools > options > global (in CorelDraw) and temporarily turn off the Enable Background Tasks option to see if it works normally like that.