Since you are using this computer doing other stuff than recording I would strongly suggest that you install a "clean" Windows on another partition on your hard drive. That is you would have 2 instances of windows on your hard drive one for recording and one for all the other stuff you use your computer to do.

Than you don't have to install anti virus program and just install the applications you really need.

At the moment i only have one computer and after I did this recording and mixing is much smoother.

Thank you Dori. I will look into doing that.

ok. here's my next question regarding dual boot systems. can i just put a clean copy of windows xp on my 250 gb hard drive without wiping my 160 gb hard drive clean? i'm planning on using my 160 gb hard drive for web surfing, mp3's, etc... and using my 250 gb hard drive for recording only. thanks.

I would download the demo of partition magic from Symantec's site. Use that to split your 160gig drive, install the second incident of your OS on the new partition then uninstall Partition Magic. Use the 250gig drive for audio only. You'll thank yourself later. Running your DAW from and tracking to the same physical drive will comprimise performance.

I agree with hueseph, use the 160G for OS and 250G for audio.

ok that is what i will do. last question (i promise :) ) i only have about 40 GB free on my 160 GB hard drive. is that enough GB to have the other OS running Pro Tools? thanks again for your help.

Personally, I don't like to have a hard drive more that 60% full. The extra drive space gives your comp more "room" to write temp files. Also, the further toward the center of the spindle your drive writes, the more RPM it takes to write, therefore the longer the write times. I would start dumping anything you don't need onto DVD and store it. If you haven't used it in the last month, chances are you aren't going to use it in the upcoming months either. Time to clean house.

good advice all around !

you might want to up the 512 MB, 2 GB is the preferred ram for daw applications, 1 GB should be your minimum. Vista even REQUIRES that you have a minimum of 512 MB if you upgrade, so that would suck up all your resources leaving nothing for audio, XP already sucks up 150-250 MB typically. Unless you only need like 4 tracks with just one or two effects. Ram is dirt cheap right now too !

thanks for all of the great advice. just to mention again: my pc came with 512 mb of RAM and i just added another gig. i think 1.5 GB will be enough RAM for what i want to do.

1.5 is plenty.

sorry, I didn't notice the extra ram add :DOH:

yes, for most projects running win xp 1.5 GB will be sufficient unless lots of load from ram sampling is being performed (you can usually opt to stream from disk, or use bandwidth saving measures such as reducing polyphony/mono samples/fewer fx/rendering file to audio etc).

Vista allows more addressable ram to be used (in win xp pro 3 GB is the maximum with realistically 1.7 GB max for audio apps), so although upgrading to it will hit your current ram, you can upgrade it a lot further (depending on motherboard specs etc) and trust me, no sane person running a stable XP studio setup will be switching anytime soon until a service pack or two are out and reliable drivers are available for all the audio/midi products you use (some products will naturally become redundant...)