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Is there any merit to this idea?

Have two installations of XP Media Ed. (yeah i know) on my computer?

One with internet and normal features and the other with just the barebones necessary to run music?

I believe I read about this concept somewhere on these forums, but alas I cannot re-find it.

Basically, can anyone just enlighten me on pros and cons to this idea?

Thanks!

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adiant Sat, 06/20/2009 - 20:33

The last time I had a dual boot environment was when XP first came out, so my comments are likely still relevant to your question.

I love the concept, because it makes great use of a single computer, allowing you to run "normal computer stuff" without risking the interruptions that Windows experiences during recording when "normal software" gets in the way and interrupts your recording.

What scared the daylights out of me when I had dual boot was that I could "see" the second disk partition's contents from the first dual boot environment. And vice versa. That sounds extremely dangerous to me. And so much for isolation between your dual boot environments.

It wasn't possible back then (2001), but today I would be trying to use external hard drives to boot from. One for each of the dual boot environments. And always being sure to leave only the external drive connected that is for the current dual boot environment. Technically, that is not a dual boot environment.

And you'd have to be careful with the internal hard drive. To either remove it. Or make sure it doesn't migrate any nasties (badware/malware) between the two environments.

Anybody tried the dual external hard drives approach to creating two isolated environments on one computer? I'm sure that I've seen an option in the BIOS on my computer to boot from a USB device.

Space Sat, 06/20/2009 - 21:41

ThirdBird wrote: Is there any merit to this idea?

Have two installations of XP Media Ed. (yeah i know) on my computer?

One with internet and normal features and the other with just the barebones necessary to run music?

I believe I read about this concept somewhere on these forums, but alas I cannot re-find it.

Basically, can anyone just enlighten me on pros and cons to this idea?

Thanks!

For me, mostly all pros and few cons. I have a multiboot (more then 2) with individual hard drives for each OS and an external usb that carries all the digits the other three produce, if applicable.

Getting XP stripped down with no interruptions to do audio recording has always worked for me.

I'm working to get Windows 7 down to just a recording environment. I know, if XP works why bother? Trying to keep it current, that's all.

I currently have a mac powerbook g4 OSX, 300mhz running ME, a book running Vista, one with XP and the multiboot desktop running XP wired, unwired and Win7.

Updates for the unwired one can get your attention, because I update from the wired side and have to keep track of who is doing what and where they are doing it at.

"What scared the daylights out of me when I had dual boot was that I could "see" the second disk partition's contents from the first dual boot environment."

With Windows 7 you can actually take ownership of unshared files and folders on different drives, it seems as long as they are of a lessor OS, as I am finding out. I haven't tried it across my network yet, just on the desktop, but I'm betting on 7 to still have that ability.

Think about how that would work in a networked environment if everyone had Windows 7 except for those poor losers that still run XP...everyone can take ownership of whatever they can see, if it is of a lessor OS!!!!

Freaky!

ThirdBird Tue, 06/23/2009 - 17:24

Space, is 50 gigs not enough for OS hard drives?

What if I split it up this way:

Hard Disk 1
- 100 Gigs for OS1 with network
- 100 Gigs for OS2 for music
- 300 for normal computer storage

Hard Disk 2
- 500 for music storage

Side question:

Is there any tips about installing a dual boot that I should be aware of before hand?

Space Tue, 06/23/2009 - 20:23

In a world where we can >have< 500 gig hard drives why would anyone try to micro manage the disk space?

All the applications that you will load up on your networked drive, and there will be plenty and they will be large, need room to work and room for data.

Same goes with your audio drive.

You can split it up anyway you would like, really, but draw it out on paper, hard drive/OS/applications/data storage and see if one os on one drive with storage isn't what we wind up doing.

Backups, these are the things people say they will do, but never do.

It's a lot of data space but the numbers still split down in a simple way.

TheJackAttack Tue, 06/23/2009 - 22:51

An OS drive will spread itself out. There is quite a bit of merit to keeping the OS drive at 60g or less. All of my OS drives are SSD and the largest is a 64g drive. XP will be fully functional and work great on 30g.

Where your main concern is, is the Media Center version of XP. It is well documented to plain not work in lots of recording instances. I've been known to buy broken XP Pro machines just for their COA sticker. Or just buy one outright. Media Center will just piss you off.

Link removed

TheJackAttack Wed, 06/24/2009 - 11:32

By Media Edition they are referring to watching movies and such with Windows Media Player (essentially a deluxe version) and geared towards instant messaging on the web. None of these are useful or desirable for professional quality audio.

If you are not experiencing pops, clicks, snaps, or anything else which is generated as a digital artifact then don't worry about it. Be aware though as you get further into recording that this is definitely an issue.

ThirdBird Wed, 06/24/2009 - 11:42

Now I am slightly worried about upgrading....

I have the Seasound Soloist now, and was thinking of upgrading to something Presonus, like the FP10 or Project Studio.

Which is annoying, because I would have to buy the pci-e to firewire adaptor in addition to the interface.... which creates potential headaches if i might want to return anything.

TheJackAttack Wed, 06/24/2009 - 13:20

Right now you are using two channels at a time with a PCI interface which is very efficient. If you expand to 8 or 10 or more channels simultaneously then yes Media Center will become an issue-or so is my supposition. I can't say for sure because I don't have your setup to work on. I don't know of any DAW or equipment manufacturer that supports Media Center though.

Unless you also have a PCIe slot you can't use a PCIe firewire adapter. You would need to stick with PCI cards.

Space Wed, 06/24/2009 - 18:39

"An OS drive will spread itself out."

So you subscribe to the making it more difficult just because I can line of thinking? The fella has two 500 gig hard drives!

Back in the day when a program >had< to be installed on hard drive (1) or D, this may have been an issue, on the 20 MEG drives that we used.

I work on these boxes as much as the next tech and restrictive partition boundaries in a set up process are for technicians, not the home user who is just trying to get a simple process that works OR the general public.

TheJackAttack Wed, 06/24/2009 - 19:08

I work on these boxes as much as the next tech and restrictive partition boundaries in a set up process are for technicians, not the home user who is just trying to get a simple process that works OR the general public.

Ok. Fair enough. Sometimes I forget not everyone formats drives all the time. Or that not everyone has clients that like to try to "help" tinker with things like services and registry. Of course many aspiring audio folks do the same kinds of things.

Still, I don't think it makes it any more difficult at all IMHO & just for the record. If you can partition to two x 250gig you can certainly partition to 60 (XP) x 60 (XP stripped) x 380 (downloads/notes/storage/etc) just as easily. What does that hurt? Then the bulk of your stored files are simply not anywhere on an OS partition. Should it become corrupted for any reason it even makes it easier to reload the OS.

At any rate, no one need follow my recommendations at all. Plenty here don't even when they ask for them :-) Also, I truly do know my way is not the only way...outside of the Corps that is...

I'll stick to my SSD OS drives and aux HDD for audio and storage etc. It works for me. Your mileage may vary and Dealer Dock Fees may apply.

No hard feelings here.

hueseph Thu, 06/25/2009 - 14:21

ThirdBird wrote: i wish i knew someone who had one so i can give it a test run before dumping a few hundered

I don't know about where you are but around here there are little mom and pop computer shops that deal with OEM components. I NEVER buy from major retail outlets anymore. They rip you off blind. This little stores will sell you a LEGAL copy of XP with the purchase of any hardware (this is the rule with OEM software. ONLY with hardware) so a $30 DVD drive or stick of RAM will allow you to purchase XP for $100 or sometimes less depending on the market.

Space Thu, 06/25/2009 - 21:26

TheJackAttack wrote:

Ok. Fair enough. Sometimes I forget not everyone formats drives all the time. Or that not everyone has clients that like to try to "help" tinker with things like services and registry. Of course many aspiring audio folks do the same kinds of things..

Obviously we are both trying to help the same person do the same thing, I just see type of drive partitioning as too much sugar for a dime and mostly done as a means to "organize" data. Believe it or not, some people think they can outsmart a computer.

One drive or fifteen drive partitions, sure, been there right? Not all software will allow a custom install destination and will go directly to the boot drive/ directory Program Files, at least one reason for my insistence.

Another would be cache, temp file locations and a whole host of things not readily accessible.

I did agree, split the one hard drive for an audio OS and an Internet OS and use the other for storage or what-have-you.

Same place in the end.