2 OS's on one PC on seperate HD's !!

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:47 pm

Righty,
Having got rid of my old DAW over a year ago, i've now got myself a new PC (for spec, see below). I didn't intend on this one being my new DAW, so i've been using it for day to day stuff ie. Surfing the net, burning CD's, d/loading etc.

I know that my plans for a new DAW have taken a step back due to financial (student debts!!) reasons so I though of an alternative. Obviously i already have a HD installed with XP Pro running on it. Instead of creating a seperate profile, i was wondering if it was possible to install a second HD and install a completely seperate XP Pro on that HD so that when i wanna work on some music, i can do so by booting onto that HD's OS.

It would mean that I don't have to install my VSTi's and Sequencer etc on my first HD as the space has already been utilised by 'junk' + the system hasn't been optimised for DAW use. The intended HD's would all be SATA II.

Can anybody advise?

Spec:
AMD Dual Core 3800+
2GB RAM
1 x 500GB WD HD
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 S/Card

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:55 pm

No problem - it will work fine. A second XP install will configure the boot manager automatically so after the PC posts, you'll get a menu to pick your boot option from.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:24 am

If you can start ower i would do this.

Repartition the drive.

You need one Primrary partition wich is Active so that you can have a bootloader and systemfiles on it.
I, personaly, would only make this partition about 20-50GB

Then you create a big Extended partition on the rest wich you in turn, again my favored sollution, another 20-50GB Logical drive and the rest on a last Logical disk.

this will give you something like

1x50GB Primrary, Active partition. lets say. C:
1x50GB Logical partition. lets say D:
This would be where you store your different opperationsystems.

1x400GB Logical partition. lets say E:
This is where i would work. I would also often install programs here and keep files wich can be sheared between the operation systems.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:55 am

Personally, I would not install both OS copies on the same physical disk - if you lose that disk you've lost both OS installations and your computer is totally nonfunctional.

Also, the thought of sharing a Program Files folder with two OS installs doesn't sit well with me. I can't say I've done it or had trouble, but you'd have to INSTALL the program under each boot setup and specify the same folder for the installation - software updates might be ugly if you have to update the same installation with both OS boots for registry entry reasons. Disk space is cheap these days - don't skimp.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:11 am

Each installation will run of its own partition. You wont share the programfilesfolder. When i mentionet sharing applications its for programs that does'nt relay on a installation and strings in the registry.

I would'nt worry that the disk drive would fail. If it does, its usually not in such a fashion that you cant salvage the data.

Does'nt sound like hes on such a level that it would leave a economic ruin if he loses data.

By hey, my view on the cheapest solution.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:25 pm

Go for hard drive drawer. 2 disc drive totally independant, just insert the drive you want to work with and press play to have fun.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:31 pm

HansAm wrote:

I would also often install programs here and keep files which can be shared between the operation systems.

I interpreted this statement to mean Programs AND Data files would be shared ...

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:32 pm

KingSix wrote:

Go for hard drive drawer. 2 disc drive totally independant, just insert the drive you want to work with and press play to have fun.

A valid option as well - fewer spinning disks means less noise.

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:37 am

got it....Chipset drivers were only the XP ones I had. Happy days

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