Question about Win XP and dual boot

[Ringwraith]

At the moment I use Win 98se in a dual boot set up. (boot magic)
My "main" boot is all my regular day PC stuff including internet.
My "music" boot is what I record in & the only things loaded are music related software.

Now I know that folks recommend a dedicated PC for recording but with this dual boot set-up, I've had no issues. However, I'm considering upgrading to XP Pro. On my wife's laptop with XP, there's 3 user log ins at boot up. Is this the same as a dual (triple) boot set-up?? If I go to XP Pro will I be able to set one log in as my "main everyday PC" & set one up as music recording only? I'm just not sure how "separate" these log ins are.

Thanks!!
Sean

 

[Ford Van]

I have ran 2000, and now XP as my "all in one" computer for years now. There are VERY FEW IF ANY issues concerning running your audio app's along side internet, email, other regular PC stuff. You can take some very simple precautions to prevent viruses from destroying audio data.

Just run one instance of XP and be done with it. Forget about all that dual boot, multi versions of the same OS crap.

I don't run anti virus at all, and have never got a virus, mainly because I keep my OS up to date, surf the net safely, don't open email attachments from people I do and don't know, and have a hardware firewall installed. If you want to run a anti-virus for "extra protection", you can do so without it interfering with your ability to record/mix music on the computer. It is all a matter of setting things up to run correctly, which is usually just a matter of a bit of reading and trial and error.

 

[danny.guitar]

Yup agreeing with Ford Van here...

Using FireFox is the first step to surfing the internet safely

And just be careful which sites you visit

I haven't run an antivirus for 6 years. If you know what you're doing you don't have to worry about any of that.

Using Internet Explorer you still have to worry about spyware/adware that can easily be placed on your computer. FireFox helps a lot with that.

 

[Ringwraith]

Thanks guys

I also have never used anti-virus software. (12 years) I've always just been careful with what I open etc. The thing I'm concerned about though is that windows (at least 98) seems to bog down after awhile (months) so I like keeping my music boot clean & fast. I'm still not sure if with XP, do the different log ins stay totally separate or is it just an appearance settings difference? Also... why is Firefox safer to use?

Cheers
Sean

 

[Mindset]

Firefox is just more better designed that's all. MUCH more better designed...
I usually never use antivirus & have been fine, until my wife wanted to download music etc, and she's not the brains when using PC's, so i installed Norton... Someone told me, that people say they don't have viruses & don't have AntiVirus's installed, don't have viruses because nothing is detecting them lol

 

[Ford Van]

Thanks guys

I also have never used anti-virus software. (12 years) I've always just been careful with what I open etc. The thing I'm concerned about though is that windows (at least 98) seems to bog down after awhile (months) so I like keeping my music boot clean & fast. I'm still not sure if with XP, do the different log ins stay totally separate or is it just an appearance settings difference? Also... why is Firefox safer to use?

Cheers
Sean

XP resembles 98 in NO WAY AT ALL. It is so vastly better of an OS that it is hard to think that they came from the same company! (OK, I know I am pushing the BS meeter a bit......this IS Microsoft...)

Go with what I originally said. It is really OK now to just have an all-in-one computer. Just jerk wad pussyboi will come along and say you shouldn't do it, but I can tell you that MANY professional engineers I know do "all-in-one's" with their computer. In fact, a certain member here, who has major label recording credits and I chat all the time while we are working on audio. I just can't figure out how he get's away with it with clients in the room. LOL

 

[bennychico11]

The thing I'm concerned about though is that windows (at least 98) seems to bog down after awhile (months) so I like keeping my music boot clean & fast.

I had a discussion with an engineer here once about the reason Windows seems to slow down over time. Not only is it because you add more and more stuff to the computer whcih just bogs it down, but it also may be due to a glitch with Windows. Windows was setup to slow down when your disc slows down so that you wouldn't get errors and both could stream at a steady pace. But my coworker found out after some research that Windows doesn't reset itself after this happens...and so it stays slower, even if the hard drive just briefly had a hiccup. Then I came across this on a computer forum:

Over time, you will accumulate errors during hard disk reads and writes. (It's a statistical fact.) If I recall correctly, Microsoft set a threshhold for the number of errors it would tolerate before renegotiating its IDE drivers. You go from ATA133 to 100 and so forth. I think it might even go below ATA 33 into the PIO modes. Anyway, the simplest resolution to this is to go to your system hardware, and remove your IDE controller. Windows will reinstall the drivers upon a reboot and should perform the same as it did before. (Assuming your files aren't fragmented, your registry isn't a mess, etc...)

 

[Ford Van]

Most of the performance decreases in 98 had to do with memory leaks.

I have rarely seen any memory leaks on an XP machine. Yeah, it happens, but it is painfully obvious right away, and can be solved with a reboot.

Add all you want to my XP box here, it ain't gonna hurt it.

 

[Mindset]

From windows 98 to windows XP, there was a big change I thought. The way Xp managed the system was a LOT better than 98, but of course, all OS's are prone to some bug's. We run windows 2000 here at work on all user's systems (3000-4000 people) and win2k is very reliable imo. Not much of usage for regular users but great as a workstation.

Just as long as the system isn't fragmented, and you keep the system maintained, it will run decent. When you let it become fragmented, and start adding a whole bunch of stuff to the system, and it starts becoming very low on memory, your system WILL crash & run very sluggish, no matter what system you are using (consumer systems).

and by memory, I'm meaning hard drive space.

 

[Mindset]

Most of the performance decreases in 98 had to do with memory leaks.

I have rarely seen any memory leaks on an XP machine. Yeah, it happens, but it is painfully obvious right away, and can be solved with a reboot.

Add all you want to my XP box here, it ain't gonna hurt it.

I had a program for Windows 98, it was like sssuperspeed98 or some crap like that, and it was unbelievable man, it was a straight up optimization program, and it made EVERYTHING run soooo fast. Like I was using 8 cores at 3.2ghz each with 8gb of ram. Point click done.

 

[warble2]

I'm running Windows XP on my box and it's an "all in one" box. I actually use it for work (web design) and for play (recording) so it's connected to the net. I do use AV software, but do not have it running while I'm recording. I've done some of the popular tweaking, and also shut down unnecessary processes if I intend to do recording and haven't had any issues recording.

I've been running my XP install headache free for about a year and a half. It's really as simple as not loading your box up with a bunch of crap, and pretty much what's already been posted in this thread.

 

[brzilian]

At the moment I use Win 98se in a dual boot set up. (boot magic)
My "main" boot is all my regular day PC stuff including internet.
My "music" boot is what I record in & the only things loaded are music related software.

Now I know that folks recommend a dedicated PC for recording but with this dual boot set-up, I've had no issues. However, I'm considering upgrading to XP Pro. On my wife's laptop with XP, there's 3 user log ins at boot up. Is this the same as a dual (triple) boot set-up?? If I go to XP Pro will I be able to set one log in as my "main everyday PC" & set one up as music recording only? I'm just not sure how "separate" these log ins are.

Thanks!!
Sean

My laptop running XP is my only computer. I do not use multiple hardware profiles, accounts, etc and do everything under the sun with it (DAW, video editing, Photoshop, 3D modelling, Internet, games). Not a single issue.

Don't waste your time and HD space setting up a dual boot system.

 

[apl]

I had a discussion with an engineer here once about the reason Windows seems to slow down over time. Not only is it because you add more and more stuff to the computer whcih just bogs it down, but it also may be due to a glitch with Windows. Windows was setup to slow down when your disc slows down so that you wouldn't get errors and both could stream at a steady pace. But my coworker found out after some research that Windows doesn't reset itself after this happens...and so it stays slower, even if the hard drive just briefly had a hiccup. Then I came across this on a computer forum:

Yeah, I brought mine to a screeching halt when I first upgraded because I put in a CD that was all gnarly.