Dual Booting - worthwhile?

  • Thread starter Thread starter akpcep
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akpcep

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Hi all,

I'm about to buy a new high-end PC for recording, but I also use the machine for webdev, surfing, email etc.

What are the advantages of dual-booting XP, one for DAW and one for normal apps? Is it really necessary if you have sufficient processing power/ram/HDD speed?
 
It's not a bad idea. XP on one partition with ONLY the services and programs you need for DAW, the other partition with all the bells and whistles.
 
akpcep said:
Hi all,

I'm about to buy a new high-end PC for recording, but I also use the machine for webdev, surfing, email etc.

What are the advantages of dual-booting XP, one for DAW and one for normal apps? Is it really necessary if you have sufficient processing power/ram/HDD speed?
Click to expand...
Unless you want to run two different OS, I wouldn't do it. It would be just a pain in the ass if you are on-line one minute and then you want to start recording. You'll have switch, and unless something has change you typically have to re-boot to do that.
I've been in this forum may times, have gotten a tip and opened up my recording software and tried it out, while being on-line.
 
i use a XP dual boot system, one with all the bells and whistles and internet the other a stripped out version of XP with all the crap you don't need with all the devices I don't use disabled in device manager


You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of memory and system resources youll free up.

Dual boot all the way
 
LemonTree said:
You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of memory and system resources youll free up.
Click to expand...
Oh! I agree that it will free up tons of memory. However, If you have plenty of memory already. What does it matter? Nothing. I have tons of crap, and I only have 512, my memory is not even working half the time. In the future I would probably go with a dedicated system. Then I can have two machines and be on both of them at the same time without any issues. It's just not worth the hassle for me. However, it's a matter of choice.
 
what about having two different profiles in XP? rather then two bottable systems? i sow that mentioned here on BBS and it makes sence... no rebooting just re-logon ... I haven't tried it but seems like a reasonable idea
 
i have some dual boot action on my computer and i like how it works. I use system commander 8 by www.vcom.com and it works well. be prepared to play with your computer if you do't know what you are doing though. The reason i did the dual boot thingy is partially to free up resources but also to avoid conflicts with the many USB gadgets and PCI cards i have going. i couldn't get my scanner, printer, pvr card, surround sound card, and my recording sound card to work together so this way works better.

It's also nice to be able to have antivirus software running for everything except recording so i can do this as well.
 
I have a dual boot system on my computer and I agree that it makes a huge difference. All you need is the xp disk to set this up and once it is done the computer will prompt you on start up as to which os to boot to. On the os with my DAW I disabled the network card so there is no internet access and nothing running in the background. this keeps my resources pretty freed up.
I had tried using a separate user account in xp but all the background resources would still be running and didn't make much difference.
Hope this helps
 
Dracon said:
Oh! I agree that it will free up tons of memory. However, If you have plenty of memory already. What does it matter? Nothing. I have tons of crap, and I only have 512, my memory is not even working half the time. In the future I would probably go with a dedicated system. Then I can have two machines and be on both of them at the same time without any issues. It's just not worth the hassle for me. However, it's a matter of choice.
Click to expand...


I'm running a P IV 3.6GhHz with 2Gig of dual channel DDR400 800Mh FSB on an ASUS P4P 800-E Deluxe. I have an M-Audio Delta 1010 and two Delta410 PCI cards instaled. On my recording OS I have 40% more resorces without all that crap running in the backgtroud and all the ports I'm not using disabled in device manager.

When you're running 3 8 out cards back to a mixer and using a lot of software plugs you need all the resorces you can get.

P.S. windows XP swallows 512Meg or ram for breakfast
 
crazyjman said:
I have a dual boot system on my computer and I agree that it makes a huge difference. All you need is the xp disk to set this up and once it is done the computer will prompt you on start up as to which os to boot to. On the os with my DAW I disabled the network card so there is no internet access and nothing running in the background. this keeps my resources pretty freed up.
I had tried using a separate user account in xp but all the background resources would still be running and didn't make much difference.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...

In the case you mention, I believe you really want to use different hardware profiles for each user. I think for your application you could get by with one OS install and different user accounts using different hardware profiles, as I have done in the past. One profile would effectively disable all unwanted devices such as the nic and other devices that may cause conflicts.

As has been mentioned in the past here, where dual boots really help is when you want different software environments, such as whether SP2 is installed, and can help control how many bg processes are running, etc. Also, in most cases, a dual boot where one of the partitions boots up to an install that does not have network connectivity will provide greater protection from outside threats (for the protected install).
 
might have the wrong idea!

maybe i lost the point here - but how bout a top spec pc with a dsp card - so the plug-ins don't overwhelm the system?
 
bh4554 said:
maybe i lost the point here - but how bout a top spec pc with a dsp card - so the plug-ins don't overwhelm the system?
Click to expand...

What about it?
 
Fed said:
what about having two different profiles in XP? rather then two bottable systems? i sow that mentioned here on BBS and it makes sence... no rebooting just re-logon ... I haven't tried it but seems like a reasonable idea
Click to expand...
I would go with different profiles any day before dual bootable. Then, again they may want some protection from virus, which you would not get with a different profile. However, I believe in protecting my system with a firewall, antivirus, privacy protection, and what not so I'm not too worried about viruses.
 
crazyjman said:
I had tried using a separate user account in xp but all the background resources would still be running and didn't make much difference.
Click to expand...
There is a difference between user accounts and different hardware profiles which makes you reboot anyway. However, you have to ensure that you make the hardware profile visible. Now, I thought he was talking about a hardware profile and not a user account. I must have mis-read that.
 
fraserhutch said:
In the case you mention, I believe you really want to use different hardware profiles for each user. I think for your application you could get by with one OS install and different user accounts using different hardware profiles, as I have done in the past. One profile would effectively disable all unwanted devices such as the nic and other devices that may cause conflicts.

As has been mentioned in the past here, where dual boots really help is when you want different software environments, such as whether SP2 is installed, and can help control how many bg processes are running, etc. Also, in most cases, a dual boot where one of the partitions boots up to an install that does not have network connectivity will provide greater protection from outside threats (for the protected install).
Click to expand...
Hear hear. This guys got it right. Dual boot is for two different OS (or if you are using E-MU and don't need SP2).
 
fraserhutch said:
In the case you mention, I believe you really want to use different hardware profiles for each user. I think for your application you could get by with one OS install and different user accounts using different hardware profiles, as I have done in the past. One profile would effectively disable all unwanted devices such as the nic and other devices that may cause conflicts.

As has been mentioned in the past here, where dual boots really help is when you want different software environments, such as whether SP2 is installed, and can help control how many bg processes are running, etc. Also, in most cases, a dual boot where one of the partitions boots up to an install that does not have network connectivity will provide greater protection from outside threats (for the protected install).
Click to expand...

No. All the hardware profile does for you is control what devices are enabled and disabled. It does not control what services are running or not. I believe that by far the easiest way to control both - devices AND services - is to set up a dual-boot environment.
 
AGCurry said:
No. All the hardware profile does for you is control what devices are enabled and disabled. It does not control what services are running or not. I believe that by far the easiest way to control both - devices AND services - is to set up a dual-boot environment.
Click to expand...

Try reading what I just wrote.
where dual boots really help is when you want different software environments, such as whether SP2 is installed, and can help control how many bg processes are running, etc.

What part of that was unclear? However, in my experience, MOST users are interested primarily in controlling what devices are available, in which case my contention stands.
 
There are also a couple of options other then dual boot...

You can (although I do not recommend this route due to expense) go with a copy of Virtual PC which provides extensive tweaking of multiple environments. The other, far cheaper, route is to use one of your 5 1/4 bays to house a removable HDD. HDD are cheap, and you can pop them in and out as required.
 
fraserhutch said:
Also, in most cases, a dual boot where one of the partitions boots up to an install that does not have network connectivity will provide greater protection from outside threats (for the protected install).
Click to expand...

I should have also mentioned this too. I mess with my computer a lot trying shareware and demos and always seem to get it full of crap requiring a disk format every once in a while. With the dual boot my DAW has no internet access and is always free of viruses. When the time comes to reformat I only have to reformat the one os.
 
i tried setting up two different hardware profiles with my computer... one for recording and one for media/surfing/etc/whatever but it doesnt work for me..? i tried to disable a bunch of stuff that i dont need to use that will free up resources / make my computer run better and quieter but i coudlnt seem to get it to work?

anyone have any ideas?
 
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