Dual Boot (sort of) for GS Stability?

[Don Ambory]

I installed the B4 soft-organ and had to remove it because of Blue screens, can I have a non-GS boot? I don\'t need a different OS, just different software installed. I sequence and record an Macs and I have an extension set (Extentions are software and hardware drivers for the non-Mac users) I will boot with for critical recording situations. Is there an equivalent on PC?

[Stig]

Not really. How about removable IDE drive carriers with specific installs. It\'s not expensive and does work. I do it and some other people I know do as well.

Stig

[uchlee]

Hello,

Check out the PARTITION MAGIC.
You can easily do that with it.

Cheers,

[Cool7s_Dad]

Hi Don:

I do the dual boot thing all the time. I know people who use Paritition Magic (http://www.powerquest.com) with great success. I use System Commander (http://www.systemcommander.com).

In my studio I have two main computers: One for sequencing, recording, and mixing and the other for GigaStudio. The recording machine is this:

PIII 933mhz, 133mhz FSB
Intel P815EEA motherboard w/ATA100, 133mhzFSB, on board sound, and on board LAN adapter
512MB Kinston 133mhz ValueRam
ATI Rage 128 Pro All-In-Wonder AGP4X video card
Ricoh MP9120 8X DVD, 12X CDR, 10X CDRW, 32X CDROM combo drive (this is an absolutely killer component!)
Three IBM Deskstar 45GB, 8.5ms, 7200RPM, ATA100 hard drives
NEC Floppy
Antec Gemstone case (ruby red)

The Giga machine is this:

PIII 733mhz, 100mhz FSB
Asus P3B-F motherboard with UDMA/66, 100mhz FSB
512MB Micron Gold RAM, 100mhz
Kingston NE30 PCI NIC
Matrox Millennium AGP2X video card
Adaptec 19160 Ultra-160 SCSI controller
Quantum Atlas10k 9GB, 4.5ms, 10000RPM, Ultra-160 hard drive
Quantum Atlas10k 18GB, 4.5ms, 10000RPM, Ultra-160 hard drive
IBM Deskstar 45GB, 8.5ms, 7200RPM, ATA100 hard drive
Antec Gemstone case (saphhire)
NEC floppy drive

Since I share my studio with my wife and my sixth grader, I\'ve run into real problems in the past when they\'ve installed or downloaded some questionable software. Add to that the normal (but maddening) process of Windows \"rusting\" over time.

So I finally decided to bite the bullet and reinstall everything on both computers. On the first one, I have three boot configurations:

1) Windows 2000 Professional - I set up a 10GB partition to hold this OS and all the applications it will use. This is where all three of us run our productivity software such as MS Office, internet stuff, web design tools, compilers, email, and such. There aren\'t really any audio apps installed into this partition. Since not all my audio devices support Win2k very well (or in some cases not at all), I can\'t really use Win2k for audio. I\'d like to, because the system and the disks run anywhere from 30 to 50% faster. I\'m waiting on Emu to release some Win2k compliant drivers for their APS card... I\'m not holding my breath.

2) Windows 98 Second Edition - This is another 10GB partition that has a \"lite\" install of MS Office (just Word and Excel) and the Visual Studio 6 C++ compiler for developing audio software. It also has support for IE and minimal web development tools, and also has most of my audio software suite installed on it. This is where we install and test those questionable apps and games I referred to. If they cause a problem... then no problem. I\'ll just blow away this partition and restore a pristine copy of it.

3) Win 98 Lite (http://www.98lite.net) - This is a \"lightened\" version of Windows 98 SE. It\'s really the heart of my DAW. It\'s where I use Cakewalk, SoundForge, Overture, and all my other audio tools. There is *nothing* installed on this 10GB partition that does not pertain directly to audio production. 98Lite completely strips out Internet Exploder, networking, and other nonessential items. The swap file and disk access are finely tuned here (although performance still isn\'t nearly as good as Win2k).

On the other computer I only have two boot partitions: One for Windows 2000 with its productivity apps and networking, the other is another install of 98Lite and the only software I install to that partition is GigaStudio. Period.

Am I totally happy with all this? Hell no! It was a !!!ROYAL BITCH!!! to set up and configure. It took me 8 weeks of sleepless nights and solid weekends. There were times when I thought I\'d rather die than continue screwing with it. I had to install Windows 98 SE on that first computer 19 times! (Yes I counted. In fact, I took notes on all this. I was hunting for the perfect combination of motherboard, NIC, audio, hard disk, and video drivers to maximize usage and stability). I had to install Windows 2000 on the first computer 11 times to get it right. The second computer only required two installations of each (based on what I learned with the first one).

My advice to you is this: Don\'t try this if you have a low pain threshold. Don\'t try this if you\'re relatively new to PC\'s. I have an advanced degree in Computer Science and I\'ve been using microcomputers and/or PC\'s since 1978. I\'ve been programming Windows since 1985, and I run a development department of 16 people. I\'m not a newbie. I\'m not inexperienced. But I have to tell you that this was one of the most exasperating experiences of my 23 year computing career.

Lastly, here\'s a couple of *key* things I learned:

1) Always, always, always, always install Windows 2000 last. Always. If you install Windows 98 second, and the Windows 2000 boot partition is visible to it, then it will happily screw up your Windows 2000 installation. And it won\'t be obvious. It\'ll manifest itself in things like your no longer being able to run Configuration Management, or Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel. It took me a while to figure this one out.

2) Be *very* careful about installing motherboard drivers. Sometimes the default drivers that come with Windows are better. Check Usenet and places like this to find out about other people\'s experiences with your mobo drivers.

3) Be *even more careful* about installing hard disk drivers. Again, the Windows bus mastering drivers can often be better than what comes with the motherboard.

4) Don\'t ever install \"system monitoring\" software. This wreaks havok with audio apps and overall performance. It can also destabilize the system.

5) In addition to System Commander, get a copy of Ghost. That way, when you finally do reach your own personal OS pergatory, you can forever preserve it and restore it when necessary.

HTH,
Tim
http://www.elithic.com (\"http://www.elithic.com\")

[Cool7s_Dad]

Forgot to mention that the recording machine has an Emu APS sound card and the Giga machine has an Echo Gina 20 card.

Peace,
Tim
http://www.elithic.com (\"http://www.elithic.com\")

[Jamieh]

I use Partition Magic 6.0 to dual boot my Giga system. As far as I am concerned, it is the only way to go. Especially since for my Giga boot I turn off virtual memory to avoid periodic clicks in the audio.

[Bifop]

I use XOSL. It\'s a multi-boot manager and it has a partition manager (but this one needs reformating, while partition magic doesn\'t).
Used in conjonction with Norton Ghost, it takes me 30 minutes to (re)install a 2 system machine.
The best thing with it ; it\'s free !!
Go get it at : http://www.xosl.org/ (\"http://www.xosl.org/\")

Peace,

Bifop