2 operating systems in 1 computer ?

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andrebrito

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Hello !

I have 2 HD and 1 DVD writer and I want to have 2 operating systems in my computer, one only used for audio and other for everything else

What is the best option ?

1 - installing the 2 operating systems in 1 HD and use the other HD only for audio ?

2 - installing each operating system on each HD (one HD would run the operating system for audio) and doing on each HD a partition for placing the files.

Should I place the two HD's on the same IDE channel or separate them ?

Thanks in advance,,

any suggestion is welcome

my computer is an AMD 2.4, Asus Mboard
 
funny you should mention this as i have just done it. i have found the best thing to do is partition one of your hard drives in half and instal an OS on each of the partitions. uee the other drive for storage. I used a pretty cool program called system commander 8 www.v-com.com . It gave me a scare when i thought all my hard drives were gone but it was own stupid fault for not reading the manual. I just had to change some default settings and everything worked fine. now i have one version of XP for music production on ly and one version for everything else. When i start my computer it asks what version i want to boot.... pretty cool
 
What are the advantages of using both OS on the same HD then using only 2 OS on separate HD?s, having the audio HD, a partition for XP and the partition for audio files.... the other HD will be for everything else..

Won't your audio system becomes slower after sometime if you are also using another OS on the same HD ?
 
Running a dual boot on a single drive via partitions won't effect the performance of either OS, as the partitions are treated as separate drives for their respective OS.
However, running separate partitions on a single drive for the OS/programs on one partition and the audio data on the other partition wouldn't offer any benefit over not having partitions to begin with. It's still the same physical drive.
The best method is to have partitions on the primary drive to accommodate the OS's and programs and a second drive dedicated to the audio data and whatever archival purposes you see fit.
If it's a large capacity second drive, you can partition it to facilitate faster defragmenting of the section you use as the working directory for your audio data.
 
hmm i'm not sure i get what you mean.

I have my main drive C, which is partitioned in have to give drives C and F (D and E are CD drives). then i have two other 120 gig hard drives G and H. I have one windows installed on drive C which is used for everything. I have another version of windows XP on drive F which is only for audio work. Then on drive G i have only audio projects. One drive H i have sample libraries.

The reason i have the 2 versions of windows on the same drive (remember my drive C is partitioned in have to give 2 virtual drives, C and F) is that say i was using the windows for audio work. well windows could get what it needed from drive F while Sonar could do its shit from drive G. they would not be trying to access the same drive at the same time. I hope that makes sense, i think manning1 could explain it beter as he is a puter engineer and i have seen him write it out more clearly.

I'm sure he will chime in soon.... where are manning? :)
 
Personally, I don't use a dual boot. I use separate computers (5 to be exact .... but that's beside the point).
According to minofifa's post, that's exactly what he is doing (two instances of XP) by using the program System Commander 8 that he linked to.
Check it out, it seems as though this will do just what you would like.
Just heed his advice of reading the manual prior to installing.
 
I maintain a number of dual boot systems at home and at work.

In general, the principle is quite simple - get the OS and audio partitions on seperate controllers. Thus, you want to parition your primary master and install the OS on those partitions, and partition your secondary master and use those partitions for audio.

Having one drive partitioned into a system partition and an audio partition merely aids in organization - it does not help in the least for enhancing performance.

That said, I am not sure why you want a dual boot.... would not using hardware profiles enable you to achieve the same end and be a lot easier?

Fraser
 
i use two boots systems because its more than just the harware profiling.

1. i like to instal certain updates on one that i wouldn't want on the other. for examplw if a SP3 comes out, i may want it on my normal setup but i don't want my DAW messed up. In fact if i have a stable DAW, i don't want any more update.
2. I want antivirus software one one OS but not on the other.
3. I don't want any additional software on the audio OS that doesn't need to be. i.e internet explorer, outlook express, office etc..
4. I usually reformat my normal OS once every 5 months or so, bu ti don't wanto reformat my audio os.
 
Good question! I do video editing, and I have one os drive and one video drive. The reason is because the program is very hard drive demanding. Simply put, with two drives, the program can work with the video and run the program at the same time without making the hard drive go back and forth. (This also explains why people should defragment) If the hard drive can stay in one place for the video, and the other drive can stay in one place for the OS and software, more speed is achieved.

Personally, I'd do two OSes on one drive with two partitions, and have another drive for audio.

An alternative to doing two OSes is hardware profiles, like has been already mentioned, or you can create seperate "Users". On my system, I have seperate users for video, and gaming. So the gaming user has been customized for gaming, and the video user has been cleaned up and tweaked for video.

Whatever you decide, let us know and Im sure someone would be glad to help through the process.

Good luck
~Pentium
 
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minofifa - good posts! I'm just looking at doing the same thing, condensing my work and recording PCs down to one. Might need to get one larger HD though because have one 30gb and one 40gb at present. 40gb is to store recordings on but maybe I need something bigger for two OSs, then use 30gb for backups of specific files etc? Hmm!
 
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