Only one computer! Define 2nd user or 2nd XP install for DAW?

[mattsz]

I have only one computer to use for audio recording as well as for accomplishing all of my other daily needs, which means, against all recommendation, I use the same computer for email, internet, word-processing, etc, with all of the associated firewall, anti-virus, Windows update, and other programs and applications. I would like to have a (quiet!) dedicated DAW computer, but it just isn’t possible right now.

I have been using this computer without much trouble until lately; minor glitches and crashes are making it irritating for every day use, and dangerous for recording use. I’m considering reformatting and reinstalling from scratch. But if I do so, is there any way I can isolate my DAW installation from my everyday uses? I was wondering about two possibilities:

Is there a way to define a user, whose function is limited to the recording software and the necessary stuff needed for it? It would be nice to be able to “log off” from the default “administrator” user and log onto a “DAW user” who has no access to any networks or internet or other applications or drivers that aren’t needed for recording. I haven’t been able to find out whether this is possible, so I suspect that it isn’t…

Is it recommended, or even possible, for that matter, to create two independent XP installations on one computer, similar to the multiple, different, operating system installations I’ve heard some people used to do? Some of the setup and updating work would be doubled, but might this be a way of completely isolating the DAW from the rest of the stuff on the same computer?

Any thoughts on these or other ideas are greatly appreciated!

~ Matt

[scottdemarko]

If I understand what your asking correctly, my personal example is a I have a PC at home that has a Admin user account and a Pro Tools account. The Pro Tools account is MSCONFIG'd to have zero programs running when it starts up. (except for windows crucial stuff, everything else is not started when windows starts) The other account is setup just like a normal user....

I hope this helps.

[mattsz]

Hi Scott-

Thanks for the quick reply!

It could be that this is exactly what I'm looking for. If I set up my own "Pro-Tools"-style user, I would like it to have access only to what my recording setup needs to operate. When you do updates and such on your Admin user account, do the updates affect the "Pro-Tools" user as well?

It seems like we're getting into generic XP computer knowledge rather than audio-specific computer knowledge...

I looked at msconfig - first time in XP - it's gotten a lot fatter since W98! There are so many system.ini and win.ini and boot.ini and services and startup items; how do I know what's safe to disable and what's not? Some of the startup items are obviously... well, obvious... but there are so many services and .ini listings...

Do you have any advice regarding what's safe, or perhaps *not* safe to disable? Or perhaps you could recommend a source of information where I could try to research it myself?

~ Matt

[scottdemarko]

Check your email you registered on the forum with. I am sending you a PDF guide to help optimize your computer.

[mattsz]

Thank you, Scott! I'll check it out...

~ Matt

[mattsz]

Scott-

I read through your guide, thank you.

If I understand, the idea here is that I create a new user and make the suggested changes while logged on to that new user. None of my Admin settings will be affected, and if I log on to the Admin user, everything will be properly enabled. Is this correct?

I don't suppose that the desktop items will change - What will happen if I'm logged on to my restricted user and I try to run programs that aren't functional, or don't have the right drivers or settings enabled? Is this a problem I need to worry about?

[scottdemarko]

The point of doing this is to turn off all programs running in the background that would somehow interfere with your main audio program. Firewalls, internet services, spyware, virus protection, AIM, etc can all cause problems when dealing with audio. This isn't a fix all and it isn't necessary to create a seperate account per say, it just makes things easier.

You can try this method and if you want you can just delete the account and you won't do anything to the main admin account (as you mentioned below)

[mattsz]

Ok, perhaps I'll give it a try.

I guess it boils down to this: if I cannot afford a dedicated computer, is this the next best thing in order to make sure that the system works its best?

~ Matt

[scottdemarko]

Yes... I have used my computer for video editing, Graphic Design, Web Design, and Music Production/Recording etc for over a year without any problems. I disagree from my own experience that you absolutely need to keep a computer off the internet to utilize it as an audio computer. Granted a computer will work better (much better without virus's and spyware which is why people recommend not using a audio computer on the net) but if your careful I think everything else will be ok. I think we all know what sites to go to and not to go to..

Important aspects have more to do with the computer specs then the other stuff. 2 GB RAM, Fast internal hard drive, even faster external hard drive, fastest processor possible, compatible chipsets with programs ran, etc. all play a very important factor especially if your planning on getting just one computer... We always tell people to find a computer that is spec'd around the programs you want to use, not the opposite... That will help you overall experience greatly. Read through the forums here and elsewhere, certain chipsets, and OS features are highly unrecommended and will cause problems.

P.S. my current computer is a AMD ATHLON 64 Processor, 2.6 GHZ, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB internal hardrive 7200 RPM, Glyph external hard drive for audio etc. (It is a laptop tweaked for audio using the basic details in the PDF I sent you and other places I have seen online)

[tech1]

The "next best thing" is to do exactly what you both have been talking about. there are several ways to implement this, though. You can:

1. Apply all of the optimizations on a single account, and toggle between different msconfig's. In other words, disable everything according to the guide and reboot prior to running Pro Tools. When you're done, run msconfig and enable everything prior to getting online, etc. This way, you have one account with one installation of everything, but you control which "mode" the system boots in.

2. Create an entirely separate user account. Apply the optimizations to this account. Install pro Tools on it. You will 1 account for audio, and 1 account for general PC use. The ones that affect the overall system will apply to both accounts, and the user-specific ones will stay on the audio user account.

3. create a separate partition on your hard drive, and reinstall Windows on it. This way, anything you do to the Pro Tools partition does NOT affect the other partition; they are two totally separate installations of Windows, and will NOT interact with or affect each other.

Option 1 is the easiest, but option 3 is the most thorough. option 2 rides the line between them. Which you do is 100% your call.

[mattsz]

Thanks to you both, gents!

Scott: FYI, I have a 3 GHZ Pentium4, 1GB ram, 120 GB internal HD 7200 RPM with a second 300GB internal HD for audio storage...

[scottdemarko]

The more ram the merrier, other than that Looks good. That PDF I sent you
"Tech1" wrote. Ironically his name is Matt as will ;) Good Luck and happy holidays.. - Christmas is year around!

[mattsz]

Well guys, I decided to try out the "two user account" (Matt H's option 2) and I'm glad I tried it out on the old standby laptop! I created a new "test" user, and I was encouraged by the fact that most of my usual desktop icons didn't show up on the "test" desktop. Logged onto this new "test" user account, I began to follow the advice in the PC optimization guide, right up to the Startup Services/Applications bit, which means I adjusted most of the Windows settings.

At this point, I decided to go back to my primary admin account and I was surprised to find that almost all of the settings I changed were changed in the admin account: performance settings, virtual memory settings, power schemes (including peripherals), network adaptors, audio card, firewall, automatic Windows updates, display color quality, Windows sounds, write caching, and System Restore were all changed. (should've checked it out *before* disabling System Restore; I lost all of my checkpoints...)

This doesn't really strike me as an effective way to optimize the computer for audio but still be able to use it for general use. I thought that the changes offered in the guide would only affect the new user account. Am I missing something?

If I create a separate partition on the hard drive and install XP twice, guess I'll be given a choice during startup?

[Justin]

I think any optimization you run that is systemwide like power management or memory related is put into effect before the user logon system starts up, so the change is global for any user who logs in.

The things that will be different between users will be installed programs, startup items (specific to that user's startup folder, global startup items will still run), and some of the performance settings from the Control Panel -> System window. (the ones that govern visual settings vs. performance)

If you want to run a stripped down install of windows and a full featured one, I think you'll need to have two installs of Windows running. You could have seperate OS drives, using a hot swap chassis. The other option is to partition your system drive into two seperate drives and run a dual boot system. Partitioning will probably be the only way to do this on a laptop.

You will need a 3rd party tool to split the OS drive into 2 partitions. Partition Magic is popular. Another good tool is Partition Manager by Acronis, (the company that provides our Creation Station system restore software) http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/partitioning.html

You'd split the drive into two partitions, each appearing to the OS as a seperate drive, then install another copy of Windows into the 2nd partition.

There is a good Knowledge Base article on Microsoft's site here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306559
It covers some of the older systems, but you'll mainly be looking at the bits about XP.

[mattsz]

Thanks Justin-

My intention is to reformat my current boot hard drive and start again with two partitions and two installs of XP. I will *not* be trying to partition the drive and add a second XP while preserving the original.

Do I need third party software to accomplish this, or can I just reformat and define two partitions?

~ Matt

[Tenstripe]

Yes, you can install two different bootups of the OS on the same drive on different partitions. during installation you should be asked which partition to install to.

[Justin]

I think you will still need some kind of partitioning tool to set up the blank drive. Usually you would boot from a CDROM and launch the partitioning utility.

Most retail boxed drives come with a tool that can do this.
I'm sure there are freeware or open source utilities as well.