Win2000 and WinME

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jon Valdivia
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Jon Valdivia

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Hi

I'm looking around using Windows 2000 and making an optimization for recording only. I'll use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, Fruity Loops, Vaz, and Cool Edit Pro.

I really don't know which of these two is the best for recording: win2000 or winME.

Any suggestions?

PII 266 128Mb RAM
8Gb HD
Sb Live!

Jon
 
I don't know enough about it to tell you exactly why, but I was using win200pro for a while to edit w/Wavelab and burn, and it SUCKED. The only peripheral I got to work properly all the time was a printer I didn't need to begin with - everything else had crack IV drips.

If you do use 2000, you'd better get more RAM. Lots more.
 
In therory Win 2000 is much more stable and less prone to crash, but has much less hardware support, because ME will work with W98 drivers.

I would say try ME, especially if you already own it, and move to 2000 only if you have problems. And check you hardware vendor FIRST to make sure 2000 drivers are out there.
 
Hmm, that doesn't sound really good

I'll try to find 2000 drivers, i think i'll have, but, if i find them, do you recommend me to use 2000. The idea is to have the more free resources as possible ir order to get all the power to audio apps, isnt'it?

According to that, is better W95 than W98 or WME, or have them new useful features for audio?

Thanks

Jon
 
W2K Pro is based on the NT kernal and will run correctly configured (read updated drivers) about 20% faster than 98 (ME is still basically 98) with more tracks,effects etc.
By the way,I was a Cakewalker from version 3 (DOS!) up to 8,when a 15 minute session with the N-Track demo convinced me of the error of my ways.
W2K Pro is about to release service pack #2,so this is a mature,stable platform.I've been using it in my home DAW for over a year now and would recommend it highly.I'm using a generic PIII 600 with dual synced 16 bit sound cards and N-Track software.

http://fasoft.com/
check it out


Tom
 
2000 beat all other MS operating systems hands down but it's a resource hog. With your setup Jon, I'd run 98lite. check it out at www.98lite.com I've been running 2000 for over one and a half years now and I really like it. Mind you, I've only ever run it on a PIII@500/256RAM or greater.

/Ola
 
98Lite???

Hi! Thank you for the answer!

I've been in www.98Lite.com and i don't understand what do you recommend me to do.

What should I do? Should I install 98 with my setup? and then install 98lite? Or does 98 lite works with 2000?

If you recommend me to install W98, i'd like to have two OS, one for recording ONLY and one for the rest of things(office, internet...). I've thougt to have 2000/ME, but maybe i should have 98/98, or having 2000/98, and use 98 for recording instead of 2000...

What do you think? I'd love to be rich and buy a great new PC and have no need to ask you this questions.

Jon
 
I checked the 98lite site again and it used to be more straight to the facts. Now they have a memebers' site and lots of things I haven't seen before. Wait, I got it, it's www.98lite.net sorry about that.

This program gives you two options. You can either run it before installation by booting from a 98 startup disk and then run the 98lite program from a floppy before the Win98 installation or run it on an present Win98 installation. I think the former is preferred. 98lite lets you remove tons of "features" from Win98 and if you're planning on getting a dedicated recording OS, you don't need Internet Explorer, modem drivers etc.

I'm running a 98lite/W2k dual boot and I can really recommend that setup. However, runing W2k on a PII@266/128RAM isn't advisable. I have never tried a 98/98 or 98/Me dual boot but I would guess that as they are basically the same OS, things might get messed up. I've heard lots of people swearing at WinMe but none swearing by it. I've never tried it myself and I doubt that I will.

I've used 98Lite/NT/W2k triboot without problems but NT/W2k are smarter than 98. Depending on my next soundcard, I might go back to the triboot setup because there are still a lack of stable W2k drivers for many soundcards.

Yada yada yada

/Ola
 
On more thing. With your specs, I would suggest a 98/NT4.0 dual boot if you want a dedicated recording environment. Use NT for recording and 98 for the rest. Assuming that your soundcard has NT drivers of course.

However, a 98/NT setup is a bit tricky as 98 cannot read NTFS, NT cannot read FAT32 and FAT has a size limit of 2GB. With an 8GB HDD, I would partition it as follows.

2GB FAT for the OSes and some programs
2GB FAT for programs and data like pictures, documents etc. but not audio data
4GB NTFS for audio data.

No need to bother with FAT32 on such a small HDD.

When you boot 98, you'll have a C and a D drive available and when you boot NT you'll have a C, D and an E drive. Plus the CD(s) of course.

You could (should?) get a second HDD for audio data and partition the first like this

2GB FAT for Oses
6GB FAT32 for Win98 stuff

and format the entire new drive with NTFS for audio data only.

Just my 200 pesetas

/Ola
 
Just Thanks

Thank you very much!!!!

I'll do that. And maybe i'll try to get another hard disk if i feel it works well in that way. But i have to save money because i need other stuff like a preamp (really diffcult to find a cheap and good one in Europe, like the ART TUBE MP, with 220V and 50Hz setup).

Really thanks, I'll try to have an optimized NT for recording. I've seen some webs about optimization. And... what is the 98lite? I really don't understand what's that.

Thank you very much for the support. I hope i can help you someday.

Jon
 
You're welcome.

98lite is a program that lets you remove a lot of "just in case" stuff that is included int the generic 98 installation. A whole bunch of things are loaded automatically when you boot Win98 (and even more with 2000) but with 98lite, you can remove these things so they don't use system resources. For example, you don't need to load networking support and TCP/IP drivers if you're not planning on surfing the web. With a regular 98 installation, they're loaded anyway.

Where in Europe do you live? Have you checked www.thomann.de and www.musicians-gear.com. They are the cheapest I've found and since they're both German companies, it's 230V/50Hz right out of the box.

Cheers

/Ola
 
Jon, sorry I have not been back in awhile to check this thread.

After reading about it in this board for awhile I finally went to the "98lite" site and checked it out. Frankly I am unimpressed. Looks to me like some smart college kids trying to make some money off of people's paranoia. On the other hand, if people like ola have been using it successfully it's probably harmless. But I doubt it really does any significant tuning to the OS that you could not do yourself.

I agree that if you want to go NT4 or Win2000 you need more RAM, but you should buy more anyway because its extremely cheap right now and any OS you use will benifit.

The real key is whether NT4 / 2000 supports your hardware. If they both do I would choose 2000, it has plug'n'play (sort of) and increasing support while NT4 is a product with waning support.

For the record I use plain old Win 98 SE, installing only what I need, and it works just fine. I use Cakewalk Pro 9. I have a P3-533 and 256 megs RAM and I am able to record 8 streams of 24 bit audio with no problem.
 
I think your limited hard drive space is reason enough to not try Windows 2000 - a basic install of Win2k Pro will suck up several hundred MB which you can't spare if you're going to try to cram a bunch of high quality digital audio on there. Hardware support is also limited and you may need to dig in there and tweak some system settings (particularly for memory) to get good performance for recording.

I wholeheartedly recommend Windows ME, but I guess that's not the consensus around here. I've been using it on my DAW for many months now without a hitch. I wouldn't go as far as others in here by saying it's the same as 98SE - I've definitely seen better reliability and less performance deterioration over time than I had with 98.
 
I would go so far as to say that Windows ME is ALMOST the same as Win 98 SE with IE 5.5 plus every update patch out there. The nicest new feature in ME is the abilty to protect some vital system files (.DLLs) from being overwritten by cranky software installs.

I usually tell people that if you already have Win 98 and are happy with it just install the updates and don't worry. If you are buying a new system (or building from scratch) and are going to use it for general purpose, ME is fine. If you want maximum crash resistance and going to be using the PC for audio only, 2000 is good IF you can get drivers for it.

Wow an OS for every mood....
 
I run Win ME on a Dell 1ghz/256 ram. It does have alot running in the background. Some programs seemed to be there w/out a reason but are very necessary! I had 2 weeks worth of blue death screens before I did a system restore, which is another good feature. And it's really geared towards multi-media.
 
i have windows ME also but with 128mb RAM on a 900mhz athlon. there also is a load of things going in the background. i see this when i press cntrl+alt+delete once. - all the programs are abbreviated and only some i can decipher to which program they belong to. is there some way you can find out the programs that are running? i want to see how far i can stretch this 128 RAM
 
You can disable Norton, the automatic update & the system backup thingy. Run a backup in ME before you start tweaking...there may be a LOT of Blue Screens.
 
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