Dual master boot PC?

[Nebulous]

Hi guise

I'll get this point out of the way to start with: I'm very computer illiterate.
I can use them, but not that great at troubleshooting or building.

What has happened recently: my PC has crashed multiple times in the last 6 months, all signs pointing towards HD failure.

My plan: when I move into my house later this year I'd like to have a dedicated audio PC and a laptop for internet/ general access which I can use wirelessly around the house.

I'd like to purchase the PC this year, and the lap top in about 12 months.

This brings me to my silly question: is it possible for the moment, to have a PC fitted with eg, 1 x 200GB and 1x 1TB HD but for them to be used as two decrete systems (ie, only load and access one at a time, rather than a master loading the system and the other slaving it's access from it)?

This would mean load the 1TB HD for all audio work OR load the 200GB HD for general use.

Is this possible or even a good idea, if it is possible?
Please let me know if I haven't explained it properly or not made my intentions clear on this. I'm typing in my lunch break at work.

 

[Damian B]

Yeah it's possible. I would set up 2 windows installations on the smaller drive though, and just use the large one for audio/data.

 

[Nebulous]

Wow, that throws a spanner in my train of thought.

Does that mean I would load/ access the two windows installs discretely?
Ie, if my general use system gets hacked/ bugged/ corrupt/ etc it won't effect all that I have stored and installed on the audio system?

 

[Damian B]

You want your audio (project files, etc) to be on a separate drive from your main system drive; this increases performance and allows windows to run the OS without having to worry about recording audio tracks to the same drive.

So.. use the larger drive for that, and don't install windows on it at all.

On the smaller/other one, I would partition the drive in half, which basically turns it into two "virtual" drives. On the one half install your personal copy of windows, and on the other install your audio version of windows.

Let's say your personal copy of windows gets a virus; well it's not a problem, as all you have to do is format that partition (just the one half), and the other half of the drive is left intact, with a working audio windows installation.

That make sense? This seems like the best way to do it to me.

 

[Nebulous]

That makes sense! Thanks.

 

[Damian B]

Sweet, if you have any questions about how to do it just shoot me a pm.

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

Personally I wouldn't do it quite like that.

Although running two copies of Windows off one drive like that is fine, it doesn't give you two 'discrete' installs of Windows - whichever one you put on second will be aware of the first install. That can cause lots of really annoying issues: for instance, if you install one version of Windows first (say Windows 7), then the second install is an earlier (XP for example), then you'll won't be able to boot into Win7 any more - so you have to make sure you install them in the right order. And should you ever have to format one partition, it'll almost certainly be whichever one you installed last, meaning you can't get into any of the others any more (at least not without lots of faffing about).

Another problem is that whichever partition you install the first copy onto becomes the System/Active partition - so when you install the second copy, all the important boot files are put onto that partition. Again, if you ever have to format one of them, it'll be the one with all the boot files I guarantee. Also, if that drive ever goes down, you lose both copies of Windows.

You can have the same problems installing on different drives - the 2nd one will still see the first - but you can get around it by just physically removing one drive, installing Windows, then switching the drives and installing the second version on the other drive.

Personally, the way I'd do it is to partition the 200GB drive into 2 100GB (I'll call them A and B for the sake of this), and split the 1TB drive into two as well - one small, say another 100Gb (C) and the rest as another 900GB partition (D).

Install your "General" Windows on C, and put your "Music" Windows on A - then use D for all your audio files, VSTs etc. B you can use for general crap, backups of important files etc. It's a bit more complicated doing it like that, but I reckon it's the best solution, and you still have your DAW on a separate drive to your projects.

Plus, it's way more simple than my setup - 4 hard drives, 10 partitions and 4 versions of Windows is way more hassle than it's worth

Steve

 

[TheWinterSnow]

what the hell are you getting at? Other than making things more complicated . Just built two computers with dual boot (on the same HDD) First one had Win7 Installed first and the other had XP installed first, doesn't seem to have any boot problems. Just create two partitions and select which partition you want to install your OS on. When both partitions have an OS, upon every boot, the boot menu will ask which OS you want to load. If you want more than 2 OS, you will need another HDD and during the BIOS startup, you have to press most likely F12 to get the Boot Selection to select which HDD you want to start up. In my experience and in the computer courses I have taken have never ran into one OS "seeing" the other and not booting correctly unless the partitions and formating was not done correctly.

Windows XP uses the same partition for registry files, and both vista and 7 use create another partition just for that purpose which wipes itself out regardless if the main OS partition is the System/Active partition, as long as it is reformatted, the registry partition will reformat itself as well. Again that is granted you format and partition correctly, but I cannot see how anybody could do it wrong, I think there is only one way to do it.

 

[Ermz]

It's easy.

Define which HDD is going to be your system drive and which is going to be your storage drive.

Take the system drive and partition it in two. Install one copy of windows on one partition, then install another copy of windows on the other. You will be able to access both via a bootloader at the start when your computer is starting up.

Keep your audio partition completely disconnected from the net. Don't even install network card drivers or anything. Disable all the Windows services relating to networking.

The other one can just be a general Windows install for day to day stuff.

Use a tool called Acronis TrueImage once you're done installing to back-up both of your installs as image files that you can recall within a few minutes.

It's that simple. The specifics are a little more involved, but that's stuff that you're either run through by installers/wizards or you can simply google up yourself.

I'll try to get you that computer spec sheet soon. Sorry about not answering your SMS. Been a bit preoccupied the last few days.

 

[Josh M.]

Tried doing 2 MBRs for my new computer. The bootloader I used hid one of the partitions. Couldn't get it to work. Had to just dual boot from one HDD.

 

[John_C]

Dual booting 2 operating systems is stupidly easy, google it.

However, if you're looking for a seriously secure situation then i'd use totally seperate drives and disable the one you aren't using in the bios each time you boot. The problem is always that each operating system can access the other partition/hard drive so if you get a virus, it could act on or be transferred to your audio boot. Disabling a drive in the BIOS removes this problem, although it's hardly ideal

 

[Dexter_prog]

I think you should go:
1) OS 1 partition
2) OS 2 partition
3) Data partiton for OS 1
4) Data partition for OS 2

If you have different OS using the same data partition things might get fucked up, specially for installed programs.

 

[Nebulous]

Thanks for all the tips here guys.
I managed to get a new HD and to backup afew stray little things I didn't want to loose since I last backed up.

I have a decent idea of how I will do it now. I still like the idea of the laptop for internet/ non audio use (surfing the forum while sitting outside in the alfresco on a nice summers day with bourbon in one hand ) but that will have to wait and this sounds like a good idea in the interim.

 

[decoys]

sorry to be OT: I have a general question about separating OS and the audio datas. I have my OS installed on one (smaller) drive, my DAW got installed there too. I record audio to another HDD (bigger one). where should i install my sound libraries then? f.ex. steven slate libraries and so on? on the OS drive or the audio one? would be glad if someone could clear things up for me