Optimize Your Windows 2000/XP PC For Audio

shloomper · Post by **shloomper** » Fri Dec 21, 2001 6:41 am

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... US;q237556
_________________
You could warn them!!!
If only you spoke Hobitos...

[ This Message was edited by: shloomper on 2001-12-22 05:22 ]

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sat Dec 22, 2001 3:17 pm

Thanks Shloomper,

it works good now. The page says how to switch to a different computer type. Tip for someone who want's to do it: it's all about preparation.

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2003-07-12 18:02 ]

dblbass · Post by **dblbass** » Mon Jan 07, 2002 12:49 am

not exactly a pulsar tip, but some readers here may have trouble doing a clean install of XP. Sometimes booting from the install CD the setup does not load drivers capable of reading the other files off your CD. depending on your hardware, Mobo and BIOS settings.

There is a way to run the Setup program on the CD having booted with a DOS floppy, but the more reliable way is to download (using another machine!!) an exe which will create a set of six setup floppies for XP from here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... &ID=310994

You can boot from the first of these, and it will then run XP setup quite reliably.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sat Feb 09, 2002 5:55 am

a note on FAT32/NTFS formats

I would now definitely take NTFS. I can't stand the scandisks after a crash. WinXP doesn't always do it automatically when it's required or when errors on the disk have been created. I now do scandisk myself often, but a good scandisk requires reboot :/

Might be that FAT32 is faster, didn't notice the difference. I do notice FAT32 scandisks and the bother me cos disk errors are a source of system instability. NTFS prevents disk errors.

More important, I think, could be the cluster size on your disk. A cluster is the smallest group of collected 0's and 1's on your disk. A pc needs at least one cluster per file, it cannot ie. put 5 6kB samples into one 64k cluster. A 33k file will take 2 32k clusters on pc.
So I took 8kB cluster size for my samples disk, which contains all very small files. Got a 64k cluster size for my backup partition, which contains most larger files. Cluster sizes are also restricted to certain disk sizes, FAT's can contain only a certain amount of clusters/file allocations.

Does this make sense to anyone?

atomic.

[ This Message was edited by: atomic on 2002-02-13 22:56 ]

Sunshine · Post by **Sunshine** » Tue Feb 12, 2002 5:20 am

Yes, there is nothing wrong whith NTFS!
If you are in Video post-pro business, where you get larger files like 4Gb files, fat32 can´t even read them. Also, NTFS leads to a more stable system, when your "C"-drive is formatted that way... There are always lots of optimization advices, but I haven´t heard of a total catastrophe, where important data was lost, when formated whith NTFS!

Regards!
Sunshine

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Tue Feb 12, 2002 5:31 am

The only thing with NTFS, is that you can't backup using ghost on the same machine... DOS doesn't read NTFS att all... But one could live with that! I have chosen NTFS right from the start, and don't regret it!

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Thu Feb 14, 2002 5:54 pm

cant you just boot from a dos floppy
even with ghost on it ?

On 2002-02-12 05:31, marcuspocus wrote:
The only thing with NTFS, is that you can't backup using ghost on the same machine... DOS doesn't read NTFS att all... But one could live with that! I have chosen NTFS right from the start, and don't regret it!

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Thu Feb 14, 2002 7:32 pm

Yes you can do that, but you still won't see the ntfs drive, it won't even appear at all! Dos DON'T see NTFS at all.. . It is a partition of type 'unknown'... So you cannot access it by booting on a flopy, you can ghost it if you had a network thou... Using another W2K/XP computer to host the data. Then to restore you would have to have a network bootrable floppy to access that server and read the previously made ghost file using network. So NTFS is not an issues using network, but cannot be accessed by a floppy at all.

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 12:36 am

There is a driver NTFSDOS by http://www.sysinternals.com
Happy pulsaring
Micha

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 5:39 am

Thanks, i'll look into that!

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 12:01 pm

for those of you who still work with AMD

and an AGP card:
support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q270/7/15.ASP this patches video instability using win2K

mano · Post by **mano** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 11:38 am

Hey Subhuman how are you

(...getting ready to order that A16Ultra

...)

Questions for you:

1. can I install two separate Windows XP boots?

I want one with all my stuff (for graphics, games and other stuff) and one with JUST cubase, pulsar, etc. no internet connection even. super minimal install to get the best audio performances.

2. If so, do I need to partition my drive or can they both run on the same one?

Thank you for your help!

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 1:40 am

-Actually you could just make 2 hardware profiles, and de-activate all Services (edit:) and Hardware Devices that are not used in your DAW.
-You cannot put 2 OS'es on one partition.

[ This Message was edited by: atomic on 2002-02-17 15:21 ]

mano · Post by **mano** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 11:06 am

Thanks atomic

I just installed windows XP PRO on a new partition, and am configuring it for my DAW needs as I speak

yay

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 3:33 pm

Lately I was at borg's place. I noticed that a Mac only loads anything until you actually activate it. It loads LAN drivers when it needs to load network connections for Explorer.
Now, WinXP has also 'manual' loading in Services. I have loads of Services set to 'manual', but some Services seem essential and this according to their Dependencies. They need to be activated first, and sometimes with some time delay (like contacting ISP for IP or so). Some Services crash here sometimes for that reason. When I'm playing with the OS again.(better word is testing ;] ).

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-04-26 08:42 ]

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 7:14 am

XP: Tip for removing Windows Messenger:
Open /Windows/inf/sysoc.inf. Delete entry "hide" in line msmsgs. Only these four letters!!. Under Software: Add/Remove Windows components you'll now find the entry Windows Messenger. Checked. Uncheck, finish the remove and reboot.
Happy pulsaring
Micha

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 8:11 am

Wouldn't that be "hide and a slash"?

Just checking before doing

Immanuel

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 8:57 am

No. It is a field in a dataset. So only the value itself = hide (=4 letters) are ok to remove. By removing more the dataset will be corrupted. Ok?

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 11:51 am

OK

I took a deeper look at the file. And it seams, there are plenty of potential in this little one - unhiding and hiding. Very nice for tweaking for fun and for simplifying an OS for the new-to-PCs-friends, who allways needs a bit of help but will propably never go into tweaks themselves.

Immanuel

mydaycomes · Post by **mydaycomes** » Mon Feb 25, 2002 6:06 pm

This sounds like a great tip...but I can't seem to find the file "sysoc.inf" in that folder...I've made sure that all hidden files were no longer hid (system files included...). Oh well...