WinXP dual boot arrangements....

[mrboni]

Hi, I am getting a new laptop soon, probably with a 60GB hd, mainly for use with pro-audio software. I want to create dual boots of Win XP, one clean for use with music software, and the other for doing nasty things like playing games and using the net.


Is the following an effective (or possible) way of doing this-

5GB (or thereabouts) 'music use' system partition

5GB 'general use' system partition

25GB application partition (used by both boots)

25GB audio partition (just for audio/sample storage and song files)


Am I right in thinking that each install can have/needs its own partition, which is then invisible to the other boot, and then both share files on a seperate partition (the application partition)? Following this logic, is it then possible at a later date to create a new install on a new partition (triple boot 🙂), as I would like to also have a clinically clean boot for live music perfomance (the thought of a crash on stage makes me want to crash 😱).

So, how do things work with boots sharing programs? If I want to use a program I installed whilst running one boot, in the other (like do a bit of audio editing while browsing the web) do I have to install the program twice, in seperate folders; or is there another way, like running the prog's registry file and manually creating shortcuts etc (a bit messy)?

Many thanks for all help and sorry about all of the (parentheses(is that pluralised or have I just spelled it completely wrong anyway?) 😉



Will

 

[tm37]

The problem I see here is that the aps will write things to the registry and whichever one you installed it on will be the one it works on,

If installing games is going to make your system messy then you need to look at the games you are playing 😉

 

[mrboni]

It's not just the fact of having games installed. My general boot will be used for internet, which will require anti-virus software, which will eat up resources. Most music production software requires every single scrap of ram/cpu power you can throw at it. Also, if I want to install software for a digital camera, there will be a program running in the background; same goes for any other utilities etc. I know I can shut down these processes but I really dont want to have to do that every time I feel creative.

There are also safety reasons involved; if something messes up and takes out my main partition (perhaps a worm or a dodgy demo cd), my music partition is likely to remain untouched.

There are loads of other reasons - like keeping a clean registry, a relatively unfragmented partition for fast disk access requiring progs, having customized music desktop, less folders to trawl through looking for a song file or sample,........the list goes on -

I know that for most of these problems there are individual solutions in some form but why bother will that when I can sort them all out in one, cleanly and I would imagine; simply.

So, any one gonna tell me how to do it?


Thanks

Will