The future SATA drives, upgrading, etc.

[PhilAiken]

For anyone who is not on Muse's mailing list, they are offering discounts (and suggesting) upgrades on REv B. machines, so that they may take advantage of a future update allowing the use of faster SATA drives. I have been considering upgrading my Rev. B to a Pro Jr. anyway, especially since I already need to send my Receptor in for a repair, so i figure I might as well kill both birds with one stone.
I am wondering though - If I want to add that SATA drive in say, a few months, I am thinking I will need to send it back in to replace the drive that I just bought as part of my upgrade.
So my 2 questions are: Can I upgrade the mobo /CPU/etc. but keep my current 160 gig drive?
Will we be able to use SATA drives as a seperate audio drive for samples, or will we still be required to have sample data and OS on the same drive?
Thanks to anyone who can provide some insight,
Phil

[looneytunes]

Hi Everyone,

Actually, I've been thinking about Solid-State Disc Drives lately (SDD).

If muse chooses a standard SATA architecture for Hard Drives, And allows room for multiple drives, muse could populate their devices with SDDs. This would have the possibility of improving disk latency by something like 4x (probably best case). Thermal characteristics and failure rates would improve significantly too. Of course, the trade-off is much less storage space, and higher cost for SDDs.

Still, this could make Receptor surpass many platforms in durability and performance.

Regards,
Kevin L

[looneytunes]

Hi Phil,

Above was a glimpse of the future, based on SATA support.

More directly answering your question - you will not be able to preserve the state of your HD when you upgrade the MOBO. Even if you do not replace the HD (which you will probably want to do at this time anyway), Muse will need to wipe your drive and initialize it with a stable OS state for the new MOBO. Before you send in your unit for upgrade, you will need to deauthorize any plugs, as well as save any state files (eg. Sample Data, Banks & Programs, etc).

Hope this helps, Regards,
Kevin L

PS. As far as I know, there is nothing in the SW that would prevent using a second drive for Audio. From the Linux point of view, it is not difficult to add a new device to the device table. From Wine, you can link a windows drive (eg 'D:') to a Linux device. The only thing in question is the SW plugs itself being able point to sample data on a different windows drive (like 'D:').

[MCal]

Are you saying that you can't keep your existing HD and setup when swapping your motherboard from a Rev A/B to Rev C system? Or do you mean when Muse swaps to SATA HD's as standard?


Al.

[looneytunes]

Hi Al,

I'm saying 'today', when you upgrade any receptor, Muse will wipe your HD and install a new OS.

Most likely the same will be true for a HW move to SATA - but can't say for sure.

Regards,
Kevin L

[MCal]

Well I can only speak for my own methods, but I do quite a few upgrades for Muse in the uk and Europe and I never wipe the HD. I do update the OS as a matter of course, but I have never needed to, or been told by Muse that I must wipe the drive.

All my upgrades have been well received as far as I've been told.

Al.

[looneytunes]

It's interesting to hear that. I asked Dave / Torbin / Rick about this many times before upgrading my two receptors, and they were quite adamant about wiping the drive and starting fresh on the HD (one unit was a new HD, the other reused an existing HD). In fact, they took extra effort to do this, and restore around 200g of sample content (and of course, I took on extra effort to deauthorize and reauthorize SW).

For you, I might suggest that you double-check with the guys in the California Muse office to see why they are wiping drives for upgrades - and if there is a valid concern for your methods.

Best Regards,
Kevin L

[MCal]

I will do.... All I know is that Muse use me to upgrade alot of there uk and europe clients and I've been told haven't had a single complaint. But I will speak with Rick and Torin on this.

Al.