Has anyone tried a dual boot system with Win7 & WinXP?

Then what possible advantage can XP bring to you?

Indigo- Cubase SX1 will install on WinXP but not Win7 is the word from Steinberg and has been my experience thus far- im no computer wiz tho- some more computer savy people may have solutions, like Virtual Box etc-

I also wanted to know if Virtual Box is a lot better than Microsoft"s Virtual PC?

2nd reply- also I forgot to add- i saw reports on here that the older (yr 2000ish) Cubase 5 VST (24 and/or 32 bit?) will work on Win7 64bit- and my SX 1 usb dongle will work for it in place of that old school serial port dongle that came with it. Is anyone doing that? Is it pretty stable?

Is there a link with more info on this? Does that add the proper bios updates etc (im guessing) like a normal install?

OK, then the question becomes: why would you want to run an ancient piece of software like SX1 on a relatively modern machine? Do you realize that $99 Elements can actually do more?

BTW, I think that VMware Player overall is more efficient (i.e. faster than Virtual Box, although it’s a little more complex to setup, albeit not by much.) Anyone with a modicum of PC knowledge should be able to handle it without problems.

This is what I have. But not the way it is shown in the sevenforums thread. Got help from Nate many years ago; it’s a dual boot with hidden partitions, which IMHO, is the way to go.

Cheers.

No information needed, just zip the folder on an XP installation, copy it across, unzip it on Win7x64, and run the exe.

Ah always wears a paar a boots when powrin up the peecee, don wanna get electricified doncha know :laughing:

If I can get 5 vst32 to work in Win7 im good, i really just need a kick a$$ midi editor, I should have everything else covered

I can’t remember, but unless it was already a 32-bit application it won’t work (Windows 7 no longer supports 16-bit applications). EDIT: doh, the clue was in the name … :blush:

Haha- I heard it mentioned here that it will work but have not tried it yet- haw anyone got it to work reading this?

I’ve been dual or triple booting since … umm … say 2003 and I’m so used to it I think that’s what everybody does! :blush: :laughing:

But it works and it works great, especially if you get used to it.

I have it configured it as:

  • DAW win7 boot for sounds and audio.
  • WEB win7 64 for web design and everything else like emails etc.
  • XP mostly old sounds and audio some more.

but I hardrly ever open XP anymore, even though it works like clockwork.

The Windows Task Manager in the DAW boot hardly fills up its window with processes, so it’s fairly clean.

Same here, and I taught Nate how to do it :mrgreen:

Yeah, where is he by the way? He seems kinda … hidden??? :laughing:

Hidden partitions in a dual boot machine are for the weak-minded. Sorry, I couldn’t resist! :laughing:

Figured you might make a comment :laughing:

Hope you’re doing well Tom, nice to see you are still around !

Interestingly, I have 2 computers with multiboots right now. My kids is a triple boot (one partition for them to screw up and get loaded with viruses, one for homework after the other partition gets screwed up, and one of backup/restore utilities). I set this up using the built in functionality of Win 7 (all 3 partitions are Win 7). All boots on the same physical HD. Nothing is hidden, which is kinda the point. If my kids blow up their primary partition (has already happened more than once), they can boot into the homework partition and access homework files on the first partition (which no longer works). Same concept goes if i need to run virus scans or do other stuff from the utility partition. For similar reasons, this is why I have historically argued for not hiding partitions on DAWs. To keep things clear, the drives do not change assignments when going into different boots. I also have the bootup set to quickly select the primary partition by default so my kids aren’t tempted to horse around in the other partitions.

My current music computer was built by a 3rd party. I succumbed to time pressure and let somebody else build my machine. It was hard for me to let go, but they did a good job! They set up the dual boot - each partition is on a separate physical hard drive. The only think I didn’t like about this was that I had to enter the bios to select which drive I wanted to boot up. I made this a little bit more user friendly by editing the BCD to create a boot up menu (yes - I know that this always causes the computer to go to the first physical disk to run the menu - but I could still route to the second physical disk via bios settings if the first physical disk went belly up). I also like the fact that if one bootable physical drive dies, there is another ready to go!

One of the main reasons I used a 3rd party was that I had them setup raid for my data drives. I know next to nothing about raid and didn’t have the time to figure it out. A few weeks ago, I was working on a song and noticed a funny pop-up just after laying down a good take. The pop-up indicated that a drive had failed. Because I was running the drives in parallel with raid, I lost no data. Even that last take was intact. Couldn’t be happier that I went this route.

The only thing I’m not thrilled with is that the bootable drives change letter assignments based on which one serves as the boot. Whatever drive I boot to is C. The other defaults to E. Not my preference, but not a big deal to work with as long as you know how the system works.

LONG LIVE MULTI-BOOTING!!!

-Tom

I found this little tool that sound like a toy app with vowel deficiency callec EasyBDC! :laughing:
I have it installed on all my 3 boots and it’s a Win GUI thingie where you can change primary boot drives and all kinds of things.
I figured it can do some harm if you’re not very cautious and move slowly, but let’s not blame the tool …
Now it’s a few years since I used it which in a way indicates that it does what it’s supposed to do.

Take a look at EasyBDC

Easy BDC is what I used to do my editing. Works well.

-Tom

Additional +1 for EasyBCD - it solves the wandering drive letter issue, and once set up, your partitions will always boot consistently.