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[OTR-jkl]

I've been seriously contemplating doing a system restore on my DAW. A major pain in the rear for sure but it would probably help it to run at its peak capability. Computers have a way of becoming "catch-alls" so I've recently uninstalled several odds & ends programs that I've either quit using, don't really need or were demos to try to regain its "lean & mean" status. I'm sure there's more stuff in there that I could/should get rid of but am likely unaware of.

Have any of ya'll ever done a system restore to your DAW just to clean it up and give it a fresh start? Is it worth the trouble/effort? Is there another, better way to accomplish this?

Any shared wisdom on this subject is greatly appreciated.

[bblackwood]

I've never done that (in fact, my Sequoia XP box is still running the XP install I did in early 2003). My rig needs so little horsepower that it's not really a concern. If you are using lots of plugs natively I can see some benefit, but otherwise, not sure it's worth the (considerable) trouble...

[compasspnt]

Just open Disk Utility, then repair permissions, then rebuild the desktop.

It's quick and easy.

[Jerry Tubb]

OTR-jkl wrote on Wed, 04 April 2007 07:46

Have any of ya'll ever done a system restore to your DAW just to clean it up and give it a fresh start? Is it worth the trouble/effort? Is there another, better way to accomplish this? Any shared wisdom on this subject is greatly appreciated.

Sure Jeff, we do a fresh system & software install once or twice a year, along with reformatting system and audio drives, for us it's just part of regular maintenance.

Another technique we use is to "clone" the working system drive of the DAW, esp after a fresh install, so if problems arise, it's just a matter of swapping drives to stay up and running.

Rather than erasing & reformatting your working system drive, you might remove it, put in a new fresh drive, and do a fresh install on it.

Of course we're on Macs here, Nick & I enjoy fooling with all this computer stuff, the PC/Windows world and "System Restore" may be a little different & more complex ; - )

Cheers - JT

[present]

Jerry Tubb wrote on Wed, 04 April 2007 15:52

Another technique we use is to "clone" the working system drive of the DAW, esp after a fresh install, so if problems arise, it's just a matter of swapping drives to stay up and running.

And while you're at it, why not make two clones and use one for demos & stuff

regards
rogier

[Greg Youngman]

I find it better to uninstall any old demos or programs... if you know what you're doing, you can carefully get rid of useless files/folders and use something like JV16 to clean the registry.

[OTR-jkl]

I'm leaning toward getting another HD and installing XP and all programs on it and swap it out with the boot drive. Then, when I'm confident that everything is running correctly, I'll wipe out the original and start over with it also. Good idea, bad idea...?

Greg Youngman wrote on Wed, 04 April 2007 09:53

I find it better to uninstall any old demos or programs... if you know what you're doing, you can carefully get rid of useless files/folders and use something like JV16 to clean the registry.

I've pretty much done that already but there are a few there that I'm not sure about. What is JV16?

[Peter Beckmann]

compasspnt wrote on Wed, 04 April 2007 14:47

Just open Disk Utility, then repair permissions, then rebuild the desktop. It's quick and easy.

Now Terry don't tease these poor folks! They are unfortunately using Windoze, where nothing is quick or easy!!  

PB

[jtr]

Peter Beckmann wrote on Wed, 04 April 2007 09:39

Now Terry don't tease these poor folks! They are unfortunately using Windoze, where nothing is quick or easy!!   PB

Wrong- Nothing is both Quick AND Easy at the same time. I have a bit more trouble with Something- takes longer, and usually requires hunting up the correct drivers.

jr

[lowland]

I'm in the process of quietening my original SADiE computer as a (hopefully!) fun project, and will be shortly in the thick of related topics.

I recently swapped out the original Northbridge chip fan, which made a significant improvement (the first one sounded a bit like a WW1 plane taking off in the middle distance), and the next stage is to replace both C and audio drives with some quieter Seagate Barracudas I've bought - following a tip from Glenn Meadows on the Mastering Webboard I have a copy of Acronis True Image which will be used to migrate the C drive contents to the new drive, with the help of an IDE-to-USB harness and power supply.

After that comes a quiet PC power supply (likely a Zalman), and a quiet or fanless CPU cooler. Although the system is not especially high-powered it does what I need for the time being, so things like a motherboard/CPU upgrade can wait until next year.

This is the first time I've attempted anything like this - wish me luck

[AndreasN]

Hello!

Regarding PC silencing.

In case you haven't noticed, there's a bunch of info at http://silentpcreview.com/

Did a similar project to a (native) PC about a year ago. Ended up replacing everything but the mainboard and it's components! Harddrive suspension helps a lot against the inevitable HDD noise. The project involved a lot of cheap studio foam and ended up being quite unusual, the only one I've seen that's built this way. http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31911 - I can't recommend this over other ways as that's the first 'silent' PC I built, but perhaps you'll get some ideas you can use in your own case.

Good luck and have fun!


Andreas

[craig boychuk]

With a PC you are much better off going full out & reformatting your system drive, then doing a fresh install of XP.

If you aren't in the habit of this, then it is indeed highly recommended to do a second install on a different physical drive & get it totally up and running before you wipe the old one - as mentioned by others here.

Once you have the OS installed, but before you install any other software, you may want to setup some sort of "system restore" with one of the various programs out there. I'd avoid using the Windows System Restore. I actually totally disable this service along with other things that can bog down the computer. Norton Ghost is a very popular option, & there's that True Image thing that lowland mentioned.

I'd make an image of the system right after the OS is installed, and you may want to make more along the way depending on what your setup is.

I have never actually tried any disc image type stuff myself, opting instead to start fresh each time. I'm kinda picky / obsessive like that. Probably needlessly so! ha.

On my system, audio is on separate drives (of course), and I also put my various documents on yet another drive as well. That way the only thing on the system drive is the OS & the programs I  use.

On my documents drive I have a folder I call "system backup" where I have the installers for all of my programs. This way, I can wipe the system drive & be confident that there's NOTHING on it that I will miss once it's gone...With one exception: email & web browser bookmarks. Gotta remember to take that stuff with you! ha ha.

So anyway, my process is:

1) format the drive
2) reinstall windows
3) tweak windows so it isn't chewing valuable system resources
4) install everything in my "system backup" folder

And voila! Two hours later I have a fresh & happy PC.

Re: step 3: there are many things that Windows likes to do by default that can actually slow down your computer. It also likes to connect to the internet all by itself for updates 'n' whatnot if you let it. I'm sure you're aware of this. There are a bunch of tweaks you can do to get things running more smoothly. I can elaborate a bit more if you want. There are also many websites out there that have lists of tweaks you can do.

I really should try the whole image thing sometime...I always think of it when I'm doing a re-install, then after I'm done I end up procrastinating it until the next time...and so the cycle continues...

-craig

[compasspnt]

craig wrote on Thu, 05 April 2007 11:56

Two hours later I have a fresh & happy PC.

[OTR-jkl]

Thanks for the tips, Craig. Actually, what you spelled out is pretty much what I'm doing. I bought a new internal HD and I'm installing XP and all programs on it. Its an 80G drive and I partitioned it in half. I'm thinking I'll make an image of this drive once I get XP fully up and configured. Then I'll load all the programs.

In the case I should ever need/want to restore this partition of the drive back to its imaged state, I should be able to do that on just that partition of the drive, correct? IOW, I could copy all of the installers to the other half of the drive and then install them on the OS half. Does it make any sense to do it that way? I also store them on an external USB drive. I plan on using that drive for the image of the new C drive.

[OTR-jkl]

Does anyone know if there are any benefits or problems involved if I install the OS on 1 partition and the program files on the other (vs. loading everything on one partition)?

Thanks.