Who multi-boots...

[The Guru]

... with true hidden OS partitions? :eusa_think:

[D]

Now, why would I want to do that?

[Daryl]

Nah, I just switch on and get working. None of the unprofessional computer geeky stuff. :icon_lol:

D

[Softy]

... with true hidden OS partitions? :eusa_think:

I prefer to use separate drives mounted in caddies. Just pop whatever OS/App/files drive you want into the machine, and Presto - instant different configuration. I find drives to be cheaper than the time it takes to setup multiple partitions, dual boot configurations, etc.

[John Lance]

Vista Ultimate 64 bit.
Windows XP.

Each with their own separate and fairly large hard drives for the OS and programs. Nothing hidden, and definitely not two OSes on the same drive stuff. The drive becoming the boot drive is mapped to C: and the other to D:. Keeps things handy, and easy to copy settings and whatever else when necessary.

[Tommy-boy]

... with true hidden OS partitions? :eusa_think:

Only steers and queers. And I don't see any horns on your head, boy. :iconyfcys3:

[Jikky]

Vista Business 64
Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.3 Hackintosh:icon_eek3::098:

[The Guru]

Only steers and queers. And I don't see any horns on your head, boy. :iconyfcys3:

Wanna-be!:icon_rolleyes::098::iconyfcys3:

[soundcheckers]

Hey Softy!

Just curious... What brand of caddies are you using?
I was thinking of dual booting the same way and own a few Kingwin drive bays and chassis. Had a few connection problems with them in the past and I'm a bit hesitant to go there again...

[olamo]

On my Macbook Pro:

OSX Leopard and XP x64

On my "control" computer in the studio:

Xp64 and Fedora 9


/Ola

[shelter]

No way would we dual boot.
No caddies needed either.

[TerryG]

I've been looking at this thread for almost 2 weeks, wondering why anyone would ask if anyone else used hidden partitions, let alone who might answer if they did use them...
Aside from the fact a hidden partition is easy to find for anyone who would be looking for it, if security is what you're after, one word: encryption.

Anyway, I've used dual boots for a decade, either to setup a dedicated secondary OS for a DAW with minimal Internet and component fluff (not so important anymore with faster computers), or simply as a safety net. If something unforseen happens, you have another way in to salvage your data or analyze whatever correction is necessary to get the main OS back up and running.
Dual boot is also handy for testing new OS versions during beta periods (or while waiting for Vista 64 to receive better app/driver support).

Sure, you can Ghost everything in a single boot system... but when you don't have a recovery floppy or can't log in, you're ultimately going to lose any documents or email more recent than your last backup once you've reinstalled Windows again.

[Animus]

Terry,

You don't have to login or have a boot floppy to use Ghost. Just the Ghost disk. Ghost is used to back up the whole boot disk so if something screws up you just restore the whole image. As far as documents and files I use Retrospect and do incremental backups to another disk and to a ftp server.

[Softy]

Hey Softy!

Just curious... What brand of caddies are you using?
I was thinking of dual booting the same way and own a few Kingwin drive bays and chassis. Had a few connection problems with them in the past and I'm a bit hesitant to go there again...

Sorry I didn't see this post until now. If you ever fail to get an answer from me, feel free to PM me, to get me to look at a post or whatever.

I've lately been using Kingwin KF-91s. The earlier SATA types that they made were giving me trouble (I've used hundreds of them and hundreds more of the even earlier ATA types). The KF-91 eliminates one set of mating connectors, and instead simply exposes the rear connectors of the drive to the mating connectors in the "backplane" part of the thing. That certainly seems like a better idea. But I haven't been using them long enough to offer a worthwhile opinion on their reliability.

One thing I just can't understand about these guys (Kingwin and other cheap caddy manufacturers) is why they insist on using the crappiest fans in the universe. I end up buying fans to put in them after only about 6 months of use, just because they get noisy. I'd happily pay a few more bucks to get quiet, high quality, ball bearing fans in the first place. I guess in their target market, it makes sense to put $3 fans in $17 caddies. But I'd certainly be willing to pay say, $20 extra for fans that would stay quiet for years.

In my current Nuendo system and also in my current Wavelab system, I just yesterday removed all the fans entirely (from the Kingwin KF-91 caddies). I'm going to see whether or not I can get away with not having any fans in them at all. I suspect that I can. I have good ventilation in the rackmount enclosures those are inside of. If I kill a bunch of drives, well then I'll go to plan B or C.

I'm also going to try putting together a SAN/server and a multi-gigabit LAN (using port aggregation). I know people who are using such SANs successfully with Final Cut Pro, editing video over that connection. So it seems likely that it would work ok for DAWs. If that works ok, I'll put all the drives in a machine room, thus eliminating the fan noise problem.

Another thing I've considered is going to some kind of KVM extender systems, so that I could just locate the systems in a machine room that way. The problem with that idea is that I'm using Matrox Parhelia APVe video cards with triple head displays. That really limits the choices of KVM extenders.

[Softy]

I've been looking at this thread for almost 2 weeks, wondering why anyone would ask if anyone else used hidden partitions, let alone who might answer if they did use them...
Aside from the fact a hidden partition is easy to find for anyone who would be looking for it, if security is what you're after, one word: encryption.

Anyway, I've used dual boots for a decade, either to setup a dedicated secondary OS for a DAW with minimal Internet and component fluff (not so important anymore with faster computers), or simply as a safety net. If something unforseen happens, you have another way in to salvage your data or analyze whatever correction is necessary to get the main OS back up and running.
Dual boot is also handy for testing new OS versions during beta periods (or while waiting for Vista 64 to receive better app/driver support).

Sure, you can Ghost everything in a single boot system... but when you don't have a recovery floppy or can't log in, you're ultimately going to lose any documents or email more recent than your last backup once you've reinstalled Windows again.

Since I've been in the computer business for ages, I have lots of systems. I have a couple of machines that are dedicated to making and restoring drive images. These systems have multiple caddy backplanes, into which I can insert any such drive and then (without having to boot from it) quickly copy from it to a server, burn CDs from it, try to fix its problems, or whatever. I never have to try to deal with it in its original computer. Making such a dedicated imaging machine is a good use for an old computer. Mine have SCSI, ATA and SATA and SATA II caddy backplanes in them, so I can plug a drive from ANY old system into them and restore them quickly.

[The Guru]

I've been looking at this thread for almost 2 weeks, wondering why anyone would ask if anyone else used hidden partitions, let alone who might answer if they did use them...
Aside from the fact a hidden partition is easy to find for anyone who would be looking for it, if security is what you're after, one word: encryption.

Anyway, I've used dual boots for a decade, either to setup a dedicated secondary OS for a DAW with minimal Internet and component fluff (not so important anymore with faster computers), or simply as a safety net. If something unforseen happens, you have another way in to salvage your data or analyze whatever correction is necessary to get the main OS back up and running.
Dual boot is also handy for testing new OS versions during beta periods (or while waiting for Vista 64 to receive better app/driver support).

Sure, you can Ghost everything in a single boot system... but when you don't have a recovery floppy or can't log in, you're ultimately going to lose any documents or email more recent than your last backup once you've reinstalled Windows again.

With hidden partitions you can run different configurations on one computer. Also, you can have office software and internet on your DAW without affecting performance. It has nothing to do with security.

If you don't hide partitions, you're always booting to the first to get to the others.

[TerryG]

With hidden partitions you can run different configurations on one computer. Also, you can have office software and internet on your DAW without affecting performance. It has nothing to do with security.

If you don't hide partitions, you're always booting to the first to get to the others.

Interesting. It sounds like you're accomplishing a similar thing with hidden partitions as I do with a dual boot. It's also possible to simply use different hardware/user profiles for separating DAW from office apps (disabling NIC cards or ports, etc) with a single boot system.
I don't understand your comment about "booting to the first to get to the others". If you aren't just referring to the need to specify a boot drive in the bios, can you explain that further?

I've had 8 SCSI drives in one box, some with multiple partitions, and been able to install a secondary or third OS anywhere I want. As long as the boot.ini (or bootmgr) and associated files are in the root of the primary drive, it's all good.
I suppose you could install a different XP OS on each drive or partition in your machine if you wanted. The boot.ini file doesn't care, it just shows all the options and the default target...

I've never tried hiding partitions or drives in an effort to save resources, because the bonus of secondary boots for me is the ability to have a backup OS that sees everything in the machine when the need arises.

Kinda like using Cubendo I suppose... different people have different setups and workflows.

[The Guru]

If you use the install CD to set up a multi-boot system, the boot.ini of the first partition contains the boot info for all partitions. This means you will always boot tothe first partition to get to the others. Also, if the first partition goes down, all other boot info gets wiped out.

There's a good guide that explains the different methods written by Goodell. Google should bring it up.

[TAFKAT]

With hidden partitions you can run different configurations on one computer. Also, you can have office software and internet on your DAW without affecting performance. It has nothing to do with security.

Nate,

I have multi boot partitions on my development / test systems, sometimes as many as 4 - XPSP3/Vista32/Vista64/Windows7 , none with hidden partitions, all that happens is that what ever partition you boot from , chosen on the boot manager menu, it takes the C: designation and the other boot partitions are shuffled a drive letter...

Each partition can have totally different and independent configurations.

Quick edit: I just read your last post, O.K I see where your heading with this, you are saying that with hidden partitions you do not loose the boot manager information if the first partition goes down.

My first question would be where is the boot.ini stored in that case ?

I found the article, so I'll have a read thru.., for anyone else interested its Here (http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/)

[The Guru]

Hiya Vin, the boot info gets installed on the first sector of the harddrive either way you do it, but like I said, with hidden partitions they're all seperate so if one partition goes down, you don't lose all.

Also, like I said, you're always booting to the first partition even when you choose the third for instance.

There's a flow chart at Goodell's site that illustrates what I refer to re: booting to the first partition.

I use GAG as a boot manager. I also use Acronis True Image and can re-install any partition without wiping out the others.

Also, if you multi-boot XP and Vista, you can't use System Restore. There are articles on this. I don't use Sys Restore, though. I turn it off as I have Acronis.

[TerryG]

If you use the install CD to set up a multi-boot system, the boot.ini of the first partition contains the boot info for all partitions. This means you will always boot tothe first partition to get to the others. Also, if the first partition goes down, all other boot info gets wiped out.

Yes, that's what I thought you meant, but was uncertain with the wording.