KVR Audio

snezhinskproject · Post by **snezhinskproject** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:38 am

Hi all,

I want to set up my computer so I can boot it up either in an optimised mode for audio, or in a 'normal' mode for all my other uses (games, internet. I have Windows ME. Currently I just boot Windows ME from my C: drive as normal, but I've got loads of multimedia crap like RealPlayer etc. which clog up the system when I start using it for audio, and I have to Ctrl+Alt+Del and shut down all the background programs manually.

Would the best way of achieving this be to set up a dual boot system? If so, how do I do this?

I've got two hard drives, one is a 30G, the other an 80G. I'm using the 80G purely for my audio data. Should I partition the 30G drive into 2, one for my 'audio' setup, the other for my 'normal' setup?

All suggestions gratefully received!

ambe · Post by **ambe** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 10:50 am

Cant you just get rid of realplayer etc. on startup as they don't need to be their when you computer boots up. I hate having loads of rubbish loading on bootup and make an effort to get my computer to load fairly light.

I don't know how you would get Windows ME to dual boot. All the NT operating systems (nt, 2000, xp) give you the option to set it up, but i think you would need some third party software to get it to do this.

snezhinskproject · Post by **snezhinskproject** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:26 am

yes but i would really like to have my whole audio system separate from the normal windows operation. for example, say i had c: as my normal system, and d: as my audio system, if i ever had to do a clean install of c:, i could do so without having to touch my audio configuration.

maybe dual boot is the wrong expression. the way i had envisaged it, i would install windows on drive c: as normal. i would also install it on d: and modify it as necessary and install all my music apps on d:. then i would just need some way of telling my computer to boot from c: or d: as appropriate.

AndreasE · Post by **AndreasE** » Wed Jul 07, 2004 12:10 pm

I have WSM for these purposes, it´s a fantastic application for only 20$: http://www.gigabest.com/wsm.html

derek · Post by **derek** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 2:13 am

you dont need any tools for that - in the computers bios, you can select the drive from which the computer boots. in the early days of win XP, i had a "dual boot" setup of that type.

its totally easy - i had a win ME computer at that time, i just put in a new drive, changed the boot order in the bios, installed windows on the new drive (which was now labeled "c" because of the boot order), and from then on, i could just select which OS to use by selecting the drive to boot from in the computers bios.

of course, it ended up being a waste of time because i stopped using win ME within two weeks or so ;-)

i can only recommend this method. third party utilities IMO tend to be a little fishy, plus, since they operate below the windows level, they almost always are cryptic looking dos-lookalike programs that arent all the intuitive. kinda dangerous to play around at the basic level with your system with such a cryptic tool. just changing the boot order in the bios OTOH is really simple.

a · Post by a » Thu Jul 08, 2004 3:31 am

Using the BIOS is an easy way. I used to have that setup, but it didn't keep things completely seperate.

I currently have a dual boot system using bootmagic. Main advantage to me with this is that my audio boot is invisible from my fun boot. So there should be very little chance of it being messed up by a virus, wife, child etc.

a

derek · Post by **derek** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 4:39 am

well ok thats a point :-)

OTOH, you could as well just deactivate the other drive if a complete separation is the goal.

AndreasE · Post by **AndreasE** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 8:11 am

AndreasE wrote:I have WSM for these purposes, it´s a fantastic application for only 20$: http://www.gigabest.com/wsm.html

derek wrote:you dont need any tools for that ... third party utilities IMO tend to be a little fishy, plus, since they operate below the windows level, they almost always are cryptic looking dos-lookalike programs that arent all the intuitive. kinda dangerous to play around at the basic level with your system with such a cryptic tool.

Using WSM for some months now, I had no problems with it yet. Here is a thread about this program:
http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic. ... up+manager

snezhinskproject · Post by **snezhinskproject** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:26 pm

definitely leaning towards derek's bios method, thanks.

here's a question, though. my bios only lets me choose which IDE device to boot from, rather than choosing from C:, D:, or E: etc. does that mean that my other windows setup would have to be on a different PHYSICAL hard drive, as opposed to a different LOGICAL drive?

I ask as I just partitioned my 30G drive into 2. I installed Windows as normal on the first partition. I then installed it again on the second partition. Now it just boots from the second partition, and there's no way in bios of telling it to boot from the first.

fake · Post by **fake** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:59 pm

a wrote:Using the BIOS is an easy way. I used to have that setup, but it didn't keep things completely seperate.
a

Very true, and it only recognises the physical drives not partitions. A virus can also spred to any drive if it is capable of accessing the bios, so hiding a drive dont help with this.

I would suggest you using a third party boot manager as this will have the ability to hide any partitions etc.
If not then keep the 30gb drive with os and without a partition for games etc. Call this one C: Then partition the 80gb drive, 20gb for the main os and music programs, called d: and 60gb for any data, samples etc, called E:

Dont wory about having the os, music programs and data on the same physical drive. They do recommend having them on seperate physical drives, but unless you are going to have a very large track count I doubt if you would notice much diference.
edit:
To install a win os to both partitions on one hd you will need a boot manager. In this case one partition with the os on must be hidden.

fake

snezhinskproject · Post by **snezhinskproject** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 3:51 pm

ok, leaning back to the boot manager route. anyone know any good free boot managers? if not, is andreas's WSM the best paid-for option or should i just bite the bullet and buy PartitionMagic to get BootMagic?

iDavid · Post by **iDavid** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 3:32 pm

Which is better Boot Magic or this one:

http://www.acronis.com/products/diskdir ... oting.html

snezhinskproject · Post by **snezhinskproject** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:35 pm

david, damn i wish i had seen that DiskDirector before i'd gone out and purchased PartitionMagic/BootMagic! That looks a heck of a lot more capable than BootMagic, which is quite rough and ready in my opinion - e.g. it can't install 98/Me to a logical partition etc...

iDavid · Post by **iDavid** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:40 pm

I read somthing about partion magic having problems dealing with two NTFS drives. You have to convert one to a FAT file first. Do you find that to be true?

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:47 pm

I was wondering about this one - looks interesting.

http://www.hyperos2002.com/

Anyone using this - seems like a faster way of doing multiple OS's than through having to fully reboot everytime - but what I'd really like to know is does it keep systems totally insulated from each other so your audio OS is seperate from your interent OS and any nasty viruses etc?

dual boot for music and fun?