Fresh Install of X1

I'm planning on getting X1 (to install once the X1b patch is released) and would like to reformat my OS (C:) drive (want to clean the slate and have a fresh start). I also have a new 1TB (internal) HD which I got for samples and haven't installed it in my system yet as I have to transfer about 250GB from my current samples (F: Drive). I also have a 3rd drive I keep all my projects in (D: Drive) which I don't have to do anything with (at the moment). I do have a copy of Acronis True Image (version 11 I think) which I've never used and need to figure out how to use.  
So my questions are:
1) What's the best way to reformat my (OS) C: Drive?
2) Should I install the 1TB drive and then "Drag & Drop" the samples from my 250GB drive? Or is there a better way to do this?
3) I'd like to also install Sonar 8.5.3 as well as X1b
4) Is there a specific order I should do these in and are there any other things I should be concerned about?
All and any tips on this would be greatly appreciated (especially to the sequence on having these things done etc..).
Thanks,
Mesh
   
 

any other things I should be concerned about?

Reformat your system drive implies you have everything you need (installation media, updated programs and drivers, registration/authorizaton codes etc.) for everything you are running in order to be able to reinstall them. That will give you a clean slate, but it will take hours to perform a complete system and application re-installation and download all the updates etc. You could avoid re-installing everything by imaging the system drive with Acronis then restoring the image, but that would completely miss the point of reformatting. Acronis will just replace all the junk that was removed by formatting the drive, leaving you with the same system you formatted in order to "clean up." The time to use a disk (partition) image of the system drive is after you have done your re-installation and everything is working the way you want it to. Then restoring that image will roll the system back to a new installation state to be used in case there is a major system drive  failure in the future.

What process did you take to reformat your OS drive? There's some files that I'd like to keep & there's a bunch I don't need on the OS......I'm not sure what's the best way to do this???

Maybe there is just a semantic point here but "reformat" means you wipe out the file allocation tables on your system drive or partition thus effectively deleting everything on that partition including all the files needed to run Windows itself--i.e. computer dead. Gate, gate, parasamgate. When you are done everything that requires installation (including windows) will need to be reinstalled.

Some advice here:

http://www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Reinstall-Windows-XP-Overview

Mesh

Beagle


I just did something similar.  but I still have my winxp drive on my machine, but I boot up default to my new drive with win7.

I would not recommend dragging and dropping samples from one drive to another.  I would recommend reinstalling them from the sampler programs.

Thanks for the reply Beag!!
When you say to reinstall them from the "sampler program", do you mean reinstalling them (as if they were new) from the original zipped files? (I have all the original samples in a zipped format on a backup external drive). Should I install the 1TB drive, unzip all my samples into it, and then take the old sample drive out?
 
I was thinking of  installing the 1TB drive with samples, and then reformat the OS drive. I'm sure I'll have to redirect all my softsynths to this new drive as it'll probably get a new name (G: or H:)   
 
What process did you take to reformat your OS drive? There's some files that I'd like to keep & there's a bunch I don't need on the OS......I'm not sure what's the best way to do this???
 

Mesh - I was assuming you had Kontakt or something like that for your samples, from this last post it sounds like you have something more along the lines of "soundfonts" that you use in SFZ or a Soundblaster - is that what you're talking about for your samples?  if so, then copying them directly from drive to drive will be fine.  no need to "reinstall" from the zipped files.  I only meant to reinstall them if you had a sampler program like kontakt or EZ Drummer or Sampletank or something like that.
 
and actually I didn't reformat my OS drive - what I did was buy a NEW drive for my OS as well.  so I currently have a system with TWO OS's on it, each on their own drive.  I can choose which one to boot up by changing the boot sequence in BIOS.  that way I can still get stuff off of my old OS drive even when I boot up in win7 until I'm satisfied I no longer need it, I can even still boot from it if I want.

ok - then if you have sampletank, EZD, Battery, etc, then I would absolutely recommend reinstalling them from scratch using their installation process, not copying them from drive to drive.  I do not think copying them from drive to drive would be a good idea - use the installer so that the registry entries for those programs know where the installed samples are, not that you're trying to patch them by telling the programs where they are.  some programs will not work that way.

I had problems with X1 crashing on me in winxp and it was due to kontakt, I think.  when I moved to win7 and updated kontatk to 4.2.2 then the crashing stopped.

you can create another partition on your OS drive and install win7 in the new partition if you have a partition software program to do that with, but I personally would rather have win7 clean on the drive instead of trying that.  just my personal preference, tho.

Jim Roseberry

ok - then if you have sampletank, EZD, Battery, etc,

 
Just a FWIW
Assuming there's nothing wrong with the sample data, you can save a LOT of re-install time by copying huge sample libraries over to a new HD (rather than re-installing from the original DVDs).
This will work fine with Kontakt, Sample-tank, and Omnisphere...

• Copy the sample data over to the new HD
• Install the Instrument (skipping the sample library)
• Open the instrument and point it to the library (on the new HD)

This process may not work for all instruments... but it does work with the above three (and derivatives).
This has saved me countless install hours...

Thanks Jim....this would save me a LOT of time!!!
Is there any difference from Dragging & Dropping Vs. Copying & Pasting? 

Is there any difference from Dragging & Dropping Vs. Copying & Pasting?

No, there is no difference. But you need to be aware that the standard copy function in Windows is not very fault tolerant. Typically if it encounters any corrupted file in the process of a batch copy, it will just quit leaving you to manually find and remove the bad file and start over. That is a major PITA if you are trying to move hundreds of files by copying the folders they are in. It is worth the effort to install a more fault tolerant copy utility before you try to move files en masse. Roadkill's Unstoppable Copier will make efforts to read a file multiple times (you can set the max number of tries) to try to get a usable copy. Microsoft's SyncToy is also very robust (but without correction capability as far as I can tell) and very fast. Both are free downloads.

Yes, Thanks Slart for the links....I'll check those out as well.

Jim Roseberry

Just a FWIW
Assuming there's nothing wrong with the sample data, you can save a LOT of re-install time by copying huge sample libraries over to a new HD (rather than re-installing from the original DVDs).
This will work fine with Kontakt, Sample-tank, and Omnisphere...

• Copy the sample data over to the new HD
• Install the Instrument (skipping the sample library)
• Open the instrument and point it to the library (on the new HD)

This process may not work for all instruments... but it does work with the above three (and derivatives).

It also works for Dimension Pro (although it is a bit less straightforward in this case).