Windows XP on multi-boot

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StevenLindsey

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I ordered Partition Magic 8.0 so I can set up a partion for my music software and one for my internet junk. If I get the full version of XP (OEM). will I be able to install it to more than one partition or will I have to have two different OS's? I know that they sometimes limit these things with serial numbers or something. Any ideas on the best way to multi- or dual boot? How much storage should I plan for for Sonar3 PE and maybe some additional plugins later? ( Have 120 gb for software and 120 for music files.) I should probably keep the music software on the outer partition, right, to minimize seek time? And keep the partion as small as is necessary? ( To keep fragmenting confined to a small space? ) I want to keep the music area clean from all internet junk and stuff running in the background. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Internet software doesn't eat up many system resources.

Why are you going to waste HD space with 2 installations when creating 2 hardware profiles would probably accomplish the same thing?
 
Probably because I don't know much about what I'm doing. :D I just want to keep separate spaces for my internet junk and my music stuff. If the internet stuff piles up, virus, etc. It will be confined to a partition (?) and I can deal with it separately. In the internet partition I can leave the programs....antivirus, firewall, etc.....running in the background....which I don't want with my music software. I want NOTHING running in there but the Sonar and/or plugins. I also think the swap file will fragment less on the smaller logical drive that the music stuff's in...? I've read that the swap deal can actually put some of the files at the far end of the drive and slow the processing down. The seek time is less at the outer edge of the disk. I want to keep the music files out there. I'm going to study all this out pretty thoroughly before I install everything. Right now, I probably know just enough to be dangerous.
 
If you notice a performance difference by having 2 partitions, I'll be very impressed.

My system is used for DAW work, video editing, 3D modelling, AutoCAD, Photoshop and Internet. I have not encountered any problems to date and did not make any major system tweaks either.
 
I don't necessarily think I'll get immediate performance differences but I think it could prevent some performance problems down the road. I do know you're not supposed to run programs like virus protection, etc in the background while you're doing audio. And if you got a virus in the internet partition, you could just reformat that partition without having to do the others? Or is that incorrect? Another consideration is hackers.....they will most likely attack your C: drive. If your stuff is in H: or I:, you may have a chance of a hacker just moving on to easier pickings. You may be right.....may be a lot of unnecessary trouble and expense. I just want to get this thing as stable and safe as possible up front.
 
I like the idea of XP/XP... that way you can be sure that nothin will happen to your audio and that your system is 100% dedicated to recording.

Windows does get messy pretty fast.
 
I think you'll be fine with just one partition for XP. Besides, if you try to put it on more than one partition, does that mean you have to try to "activate" it more than once? That could give you some headaches.

I made two partitions for my WinXP setup: 1 has the OS and the programs, the other 1 has my documents. If the OS/prog partition gets toasted, I have to reformat the OS partiton and reinstall my programs, but my documents are still safe. Use another hard disk for storing your audio files; if your drives are both ATA (i.e., not SATA) it is advisable to put them on different IDE cables, so they won't be sharing the same bandwidth.

I think a setup like this is safe enough for home recording. If you're going to be doing recording jobs, though, the rule seems to be use one computer for recording only, all other needs should be handled by a separate comp.
 
I think you'll be fine with just one partition for XP. Besides, if you try to put it on more than one partition, does that mean you have to try to "activate" it more than once? That could give you some headaches.

I made two partitions for my WinXP setup: 1 has the OS and the programs, the other 1 has my documents. If the OS/prog partition gets toasted, I have to reformat the OS partiton and reinstall my programs, but my documents are still safe. Use another hard disk for storing your audio files; if your drives are both ATA (i.e., not SATA) it is advisable to put them on different IDE cables, so they won't be sharing the same bandwidth.

I think a setup like this is safe enough for home recording. If you're going to be doing recording jobs, though, the rule seems to be use one computer for recording only, all other needs should be handled by a separate comp.
 
bluesboy2003 said:
I think you'll be fine with just one partition for XP. Besides, if you try to put it on more than one partition, does that mean you have to try to "activate" it more than once? That could give you some headaches.

That's what I'm trying to find out....if I can install a new version of XP more than once. Maybe I should just leave the one that came with my PC on there in the first partition and get rid of everything in it except for audio applications. I've already got it pretty much set up for audio anyway, I think. Then just install the new one in the second partition and just use it for all other applications...internet, etc. and just kind of let it run wild, well, at least not kill all the background services. I have two 120 gb drives. They're running off the SATA plugs on the mobo, not the IDE plugs. I'll be using #2 strictly for music files.
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I think you could do it. I've only done it with different OS, but I've seen a machine with both XP pro and home on separate partitions. When you first run the setup you partition for the first OS by not specifying the whole hard disk. Size depends on how much you want for each OS. Then once it's fully installed you should be able to go back and run the setup from cd again and partition out the rest of the drive leaving the current system intact. Ulitmately should end up with a boot screen that says XP Home (or pro) 2 times. If it works right it does all that automatically. Then you can go into the boot.ini and change the names for the 2 versions of XP to XP Internet and XP Music or something so you know which is which...
 
I am currently running a dual boot XP Pro/XP Pro machine.

It's a LOT nicer not having my normal home OS clogging up my DAW OS registry, or having to disable virus software, etc. I tried the hardware profile before this and it wasn't worth it.

You do have to activate for both OS/s but the thing is, but as long as the hardware set-up is the same for both OS (which it will) MS doesn't care.

I've activated my Win XP CD anout 15 times, and I wasn't required to call MS except one time when I changed my motherboard, and I also reconfigured my PCI layout. Since the hardware change was so different from my previous activation they assume I'm trying to distribute my OS on MANY machines. They simply asked why I reformated my PC and I told them why and they gave me a new activation code- simple as that.

Since I can't have a regular bullshit PC and a DAW PC. a dual boot XP/XP machine is my favorite set-up I have done so far. My DAW OS is consistently fast on load and everything, while my home OS has a noticable slowdown from all the junk loaded on that.

I say go for the XP/XP machine.
 
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