Windows-PC: What's your diagnostic / maintenance routine?

bluzkat, Thanks, man! I'm running Chkdsk right now. I have a strong suspicion that there's a problem with my start-drive. I'll try the other apps tomorrow. --------------------------- Bullshark, what can I tell you? Disc-imaging is an important routine, but it won't do any good when my system crashes during a live-performance, in front of a crowd. Also, as bluzkat says, with ghosting you have to do it all the time. Imagine if I crashed during a soundman gig: "Excuse me folks, we will now have a short intermission while I re-install my set-up from last week. Oh, and the band will sound different once we start again, since I just lost all the settings from soundcheck." Yeah, that will work. I need PREVENTATIVE maintenance, and yes it absolutely does exist. I know what you mean about SOME maintenance apps, like Norton, but that doesn't make them all nonsense. Would you say that the diagnostic program built into the OS installer is nonsense? Of course not. Neither is the hardware diagnostics of Tech tool Pro. It's nice to know when your ram is getting flaky, BEFORE it goes south for the Winter.

Changing tacks: Maybe you guys can point me in the right direction: Besides the many reaper crashes I'm now getting, I'm also seeing an odd prompt when launching several applications. (NOT Reaper, in this case.) There's a red X, and It says "exception processing message 00000a3 Paremeter 75xxxxxx etc" Does this tell anyone anything that might help me?

exception processing message 00000a3 could be a malware infection of sorts or a process where windows is trying to find media that does not exist ie. dvd etc. First steps I recommend, forget Norton, use a combination of adaware, spybot, and a virus scan (I use Avast). Regular routine of C Clean, Wise cleaner, auslogics Registry Defrag. To avoid further problems make a disc of the Dux nlite XP OS with slip streamed SP3, it's the beez neez. Install all your software and drivers, then make a copy of your entire system for a rapid install, should you get a HD fail or other system corruption. In fact, since this is your livelihood, why not keep a copy on a new drive as a spare, and a RAID 1 mirror of your active drive on your system?

Cableddict, I was a Mac user until last year too. I built a pc specifically for my music; solid metal case, passive cooling, quiet drives and fans etc. etc.... The experience really helped me acquire some kind of an instinct (albeit basic thus far). You should consider trying this. I use 2 Acronis apps; Disk Director Suite and True Image Home version. Never heard anything bad about either whereas other similar apps often are... Both very simple to use - DDS lets you partition and manage your drives - TIH lets you backup files, partitions or whole drives - incrementally too; ie instead of having to make another 20Gb image (or whatever) you can just add the changes. For me, a clean install of OS, needed drivers, then just the necessary apps, then RELIABLE plugins - testing they are working after each install. When you know you have a clean working system create a disc image backup with TIH you can use to bring everything back to pristine when things go pear shaped. In Mac world choices of hardware and software are severely limited in order to maintain compatibility. In PC world, there is much more choice and much more potential for incompatibility. You really have to be check carefully that everything from OS and app upgrades, drivers, plugins etc, do say they should work with each other. But even if they say they should, there is still the possibility that one link in the chain is weak. The key I think is good diagnostics; making a note of everything you add or change and observing it's effect. If things become unstable just after you install a driver for example, that driver is probably not a good idea for your system. Windows own System Restore is a great thing to keep on until you have your perfected system set up and imaged. It uses alot of drive space making backups but allows you to cleanly step back one or a few installs if you screw up. If you subscribe to this paradigm of operation, don't forget to make backups of your work, patches and documents etc. because when things get messed up down the line and you use your disc image to get back to a pristine fresh setup you will have overwritten everything. Best of luck:)

I've been a die-hard pc user since '93. FWIW, my methods for maintaining all 3 of my pcs are simillar to bullshark and brainwreck's. For several years I went through that whole period of using all these different apps on my pc to keep it free from spyware, viruses, trojans, pop-ups, etc... It seemed like I was always fighting that stuff. I'd get my system clean for awhile, then somehow... unwanted crap (spyware, etc..) would find it's way back on my pc. I'd try another program based on someone's advice and rid my system again. But crap would always find it's way back. I finally realized it was all that CRAP I was installing on my pc (that claimed to rid my system of CRAP) that was causing even more CRAP to find it's way to my pc. What I discovered was that those apps have spyware and crap built into their programs to make sure you always have a need for their services and so they can add more spyware to your pc. It's a never-ending cycle that once you buy into it, you will always have to deal with it. I think it was 2003 or 2004 when I finally broke free of all the crap. Yep, sure did. I don't use any virus protection, spyware protection, registry cleaners, pc diagnostic programs, yada yada yada. The only thing I install on my pcs are the Microsoft Updates. That's it. Now I am not recommending this for everyone. You still have to be computer and internet smart to keep a system like this CRAP-free. Guess what? Since then I have never recieved any type of virus, spyware, pop-ups or any other crap again and all 3 of my pcs (including my DAW) are always connected to the internet via my wireless router. And my pcs run like champs. They never crash. Reaper runs fast and smooth as butter. I could not be happier. I do realize that I am in the extreme minority here and that most people reading this will think I am crazy, but that's okay. I know the truth of my own reality and I'm so glad that I am free from viruses and spyware. Took me many years to figure out my solution, but I finally did. I feel like I have come full circle and it feels good. :)

Can't beleive nobody brought this up yet. My number one Maintanence is,,,,, STAY OFF THE INTERNET!!!!!! When I need to re-up Reaper or add plug-in's I use my portable external harddrive and another computer for internet stuff. I also clean my project files(unused takes and stuff) And defrag when needed. Bardo

Have you considered some "Freezing" proggie? I have seen them working at school: you made a clean install, install the programs you want, and no matter what happened, all become exactly same when you restart. Of course, you can "un-freeze" to install something, and also point folders where to write the data and not to be erased at restart.

[QUOTE=DarkStar;250122]... Hmm, have a look around the Acronis forums Yes, I always use both these apps for the simplest jobs; simple disc management and simple disc imaging. They have proven very easy to use and reliable in this context. I HAD wondered about the more complex possibilities, but given the above link I guess - if it ain't broke....

after years of mucking about i formatted my hard drives and installed windows XP pro twice i now have a dual boot system one drive for day to day stuff and the other for music only (i'm tempted to do a dux nlite install - maybe next time eh ;-)) the music only drive has only the necessary stuff for making music the music drive is very fast for a pentium 4 with no reaper glitches up to about 85/90% cpu - mostly caused by graphics it doesn't have the power to run ableton past about 50% - i prefer reaper anyways!!! i don't run demos on the music drive either... the day to day drive has internet access, open office and all the usual stuff i do all my work shit on it plus i also test all plugins on this drive before i put them on the music drive i pay particular attention to plugins with installers cos they often stick things into the registry so i've got to really like them (reaper is the only music software i've ever bought - ableton was a gift - i use only freeware) on it i run: windows firewall and malicious software removal tool avira antivirus jkDefrag - weekly (no installer woohoo) ccleaner weekly (no mess!!!) it runs much faster after the weekly clean up don't have any problems now unless you are a serious geek you don't need anything else and even if i do get a nasty it won't touch my music drive dave