Setting up a PC for recording etc.

[Poxican]

Following on from this discussion at the board set up while this one was down...

I've set up a separate partition to run XP with a highly tweaked version of SP3 as a dedicated recording OS. TheReformant tells me that's not really necessary these days. It does indeed run brilliantly, but I share this computer with the missus, and she was desperate for some information off the net earlier so I had to reboot into this OS so she could use firefox. If I were to activate the internet on the other OS, by the time I've got antiviral stuff running etc. I might as well stick to a single XP....

What do other XP users do?
Should I just ditch the 'dedicated OS' idea? Are there things I can do to optimize XPs performance?

[Ten Flew South]

I think it is still pretty necessary to run a dual boot, especially if you're sharing with someone whose use-age is not necessarily going to be DAW-friendly..

If you want proof of how useful it is to run a dual boot, then after a couple of months of internet use on the other OS, just compare boot-up times and the response speed of the OS in general, your DAW partition will be a lot faster and snappier, just like it was when you first installed it, and the internet partition will slow down and get relatively sluggish.

The whole idea of having a dedicated DAW is that you don't have 2 million processes running in the background and that is exactly what happens on a general use/internet machine.

I know it's not the most practical solution but to be honest, why not just shell out the 250 quid for a laptop for internet and general shite so the missus doesn't have to interrupt your music sessions whenever she wants to check her email etc.

I don't think I could handle having to share my machine with anyone, would do my head in!

[timeslip]

Originally Posted by Ten Flew South

I know it's not the most practical solution but to be honest, why not just shell out the 250 quid for a laptop for internet and general shite so the missus doesn't have to interrupt your music sessions whenever she wants to check her email etc.

I don't think I could handle having to share my machine with anyone, would do my head in!

I'd have to agree with Ten Flew on this one. I've been using dual boot for a good few years now and the only ball ache is if I want to access the net, at which point I have to switch OS and so on, a small price to pay for an efficient DAW drive, solely for music apps and no other.

Some years ago I had exactly the same situation, four person house hold, 1 PC and it didn't last long I can tell you, especially as the peak times for usage would always coincide resulting in everybody fighting for a seat at the console and given everyones individual needs the house soon filled up with an extra two pc's and a laptop, now every bodies happy. .

Of course the above is easy to say provided you can afford the dolla to fork out for multiple machines, we were fortunate that we could do it (albeit not all at once, kids chrimbo pressies sorted them out in one swoop about two years ago lol). It would be a different story now tho as times are hard.

[littlegreenman]

I use one machine on one OS for everything, teh'intraweb, DAW, general purpose, and it works fine.
Perhaps I'm just lucky

[dogload]

Originally Posted by littlegreenman

I use one machine on one OS for everything, teh'intraweb, DAW, general purpose, and it works fine.
Perhaps I'm just lucky

Always did this in the past until my machine suddenly ground to a halt... the hard drive partition with the OS on it had wiped itself out! Completely corrupted itself, and totally unrecoverable. Fortunately all my recorded stuff was on a separate drive.
I have to concur with the suggestion of using a second machine for internet stuff- my music pc has only ever been on the net to register software. It has the advantage of not accumulating tons of junk, Microsoft security updates- anything major you can download on the other machine- and avoids risking your DAW machine without the need for security programs that are constantly running in the background.
It might seem extravagant, but a pc that is for the web only is not too pricey, and you might be able to cobble one together from bits, or find a good deal; even a bog-standard PC World job or Tesco special laptop. It's worth the extra for peace of mind.