Optimizing hard disc for recording; where to start?

[junkmanistan]

I've recently reconfigured my system for recording with my E-Mu 1820 interface. I've now got a dual-boot setup with an 80gb Maxtor hard disc exclusively for audio. I did a clean install of XP and haven't added any programs other than the ones necessary for recording.
My question is, how should I go further in eliminating programs/windows processes that I don't need and eat up valuable resources? Is there a way to disable these processes? Should i delete anything from the Programs folder?

[Huntlabs]

I have a Digi 001 so my advice is my own...

I have a dedicated PC for my 001. No internet. No Games. NO INTERNET. Only recording. My main goal was stability. My rig has worked well for the past two years with very few errors.

I set my hard drives up on seperate IDE channes. No slave/masters. I have a board that supports RAID but I just use the extra slots as IDE channels. So the sytem drive is on one, recording drive on another, cd burner on its own.. etc.

That seemed to have the most effect. More memory didn't change anything and increases in processor power had small effect. Try and come up with a stress test for it so you can evaluate any hardware / software changes you make to see if they actually improve performance.

For PT, what I do is I start making tracks and adding reverbs and see how many tracks I could actually record without an error....

Or just start recording with it and see how stable it is and if it has enough power to do what you want. If it is stable why mess with it????

Have fun!

[high tek]

heres what youre looking for:

http://www.modularmedia.co.uk/downloads/XPdawTweaks.htm
(this link is a windows XP optimization guide for audio)

http://www.tascam.com/Manuals_And_Tech_Docs.html
(here is another one by tascam, really good - click on the Windows 2000/XP Optimization Guide)

[drliebs]

The tascam guide is a good one. Seperate drive for audio will help a lot. One of the things in the guide talks about the swap file on the pc, if you have enough ram you can disable it then everything gets put into ram. Your mileage may vary and some apps will be ok with it. I found it made my games run better but reason was not happpy so I set the swap file to a fixed size. The jury is out on that as well, but at least with a fixed size I know there will always be enough room for windows to run, even if some crazy session eats up all of the free space.

Use the XP performance tab and turn off all of the eye candy. Turn of the internet and make sure MS Messenger is disabled. Any other software that wants to phone home should be disabled or at least the phone home function (symnatec and windows both check for updates, an important feature but not one you want starting during a sessions.)

Why go on...the tascam guid is very thorough,

[Babaluma]

i use an excellent app called xplite to get rid of unnecessary windows components, well worth the dosh. more info here:

http://www.litepc.com/

[YOUR KONG]

Darkflame's app might do this already, but I do a CTRL-ALT-DEL to see what's running, then I look up each program name in Google (just punch it in and hit "search.") You'll find pages that tell what the program does. From there I figure out if it's essential or if it's lurking.

From there I made a list in Notepad and saved it on my desktop of extraneous processes that run in the background. Whenever I boot up I kill those and then I'm good to go.