XP install

[garyb]

1. when you finish the xp install, don't enter more than one name or a password. that will eliminate the multiuser function. if you screw that up, you can remove the extra user(s) and/or password(s) in the control panel.

2. when installing xp, leave the Scope cards out of the computer. after xp is installed, install the motherboard drivers and video card drivers and then shutdown, install the cards and restart. install the cards' drivers. check for irq sharing and disable the shared usb controllers...the biggest type 2 card should be the one closest to the graphics card, if possible.

[garyb]

the chipset installation utility installs the drivers. that part is done. graphics drivers next. after that's done, i like to go to control panel/system/advanced/performance/settings/visual effects "adjust for best performance". i go to automatic updates and turn auto updates off. i go to system restore and disable it(you may or may not want to do the last one, but i don't like that process in the backround).

then install the Scope cards...

[valis]

...i go to system restore and disable it(you may or may not want to do the last one, but i don't like that process in the backround)....

not to mention the utter mess it makes of your boot volume when you use it.

When I get a stable OS, after doing a few similar 'intro' tweaks and setting up basics like my desktop/taskbar/explorer folder options/visual effects and all that basic stuff, I usually do a files-only image of the boot volume using Acronis or DriveImage XL (or similar utility). This is smaller than doing a full volume image since it ignores empty space, and you can do incremental images from that point or use it as the basis to attempt to tweak/modify the installation further without worrying about having to start from the beginning again. The first image is also before I've loaded many drivers aside from core system components (chipset drivers, networking & graphics) as many other drivers will change a lot later.

Disk imaging is especially useful for initial installs on new systems, as you may wind up doing things that you later learn were unnecessary or make the system unstable.

[garyb]

[garyb]

Now I'm disabling IRQ for the USB 2935 and 2936 as they are shared with my Pulsar2.

not the irq, but the device in control panel/system/hardware/device manager/usb, right?

[garyb]

[garyb]

[valis]

"yes" to disc imaging. I hope Discimage XL is easy to use?

Now I'm disabling IRQ for the USB 2935 and 2936 as they are shared with my Pulsar2.

Once I get all this done and the app's, vst's and Scope dev's installed I'll look into image software.

Thanks for the tip.

CS

That was actually DriveImageXL, but no that one requires some technical proficiency to use (you need to know what you're doing). Grab a copy of Acronis True Image Home in demo and give that a shot. When you run it all you need to do is select 'Create a backup' then 'files only backup' (as opposed to full volume) in the wizard that comes up. Select the 'drive' to backup and have it write to a DIFFERENT physical drive (not just another partition on the same drive). It *should* also prompt you to reboot & do this before windows loads the first time you create a backup for Xp. Subsequent backups (made after the first) you'd select 'incremental backup' and the navigate to the original backup files and Acronis will just update what has changed from there. Very painless.

It will probably prompt you to create 'rescue' media, which will basically give you a bootable version of Acronis that you can run from CD in the event you suffer a full boot drive failure. Quick & painless way to get Xp working again, as long as you keep your partitioning the same (whether its the same drive or a replacement drive).

DAMN!! What an afternoon I had. I recorded drums and sax for 5 hours building up to 30 tracks in a project and then overdubbing 10 new tracks live (ten mics on the drums that is) and the system never registered more than two or three bars on the DSP meter. Things ran solid too, no glitches, no hangs or dsp/PCI overloads. I'm in heaven!

This might be old news for some of you, but I've been struggling along with an old P4 2 GHZ system that wasn't cutting it (and never really did). Now I feel like king of the DAWs

Peace,

CS

Congrats on the new system!