So I decided I’m going to give the new OS a try first. Think Snow Leopard is my best bet, being that I’ve read about problems with Traktor and Ableton on Lion.
Can someone tell me what exactly I have to back up on an external HD from my current computer that is music related? Obviously my itunes/Music Folder. What about my “Downloads” folder? (holds all the original .mp3’s I’ve purchased) Anything NI related? Backup’s from NI? Drivers? Or should I download fresh from the server once new OS is on.
OH…and most importantly, Cue-points and Grids, etc, where are those all stored? I want to make sure, I’m not going to loose those.
Just cause something is good, doesn’t mean you can’t make it better. Pro athletes don’t take steroids because there isn’t a reason or need to improve, right? Same idea.
My 2 cents on the subject is to get an OWC 128gb SSD and put the OS and all programs on that. Then get an OWC data doubler, and place your current HD in the CD slot. It will seem like you have an entirely new computer. Also, max out the RAM from OWC also, which should be really cheap.
So, I ordered an 8GB Ram upgrade from OWC. Will have that installed tomorrow, as well as a full clean OS upgrade to Snow Leopard.
Didn’t get a reply about what exactly I should be saving on my External HD. As of now, I took my entire Itunes Music Folder, as well as my Traktor “Collection” in the Native instruments Document folder. Anything else I should be storing?
Thanks in advance, and will keep everyone posted on the outcome!
Backups go on externals…IMHO, everything you actually need to perform should go inside the laptop.
I use a 128GB SSD and don’t really need any more space for the vast majority of what I do, though I do have about a TB of backups and archives available on my desk at home and duplicated somewhere else.
I’m weird, but if I had the money, I’d probably keep my 128GB SSD as the boot drive and get an OWC data doubler for a slower 256 GB SSD to use as a work hard drive and on-the-spot backups. The difference b/t 6Gb/sec SATA and 3Gb/sec SATA isn’t huge, but I think it’s probably more important for caches and applications to be on the faster bus, since even the slower SATA channel is fast enough for just about anything music-wise you could do with a laptop.
But I’m really paranoid about data and never want to have to carry an external hard drive anywhere if I can help it.
Update: So, had the OWC 8GB of ram installed- and clean Snow Leopard OS yesterday, and everything seems to be running a whole lot smoother & Faster. Boot up/ and shut down times, have drastically improved and looks like it did the trick!
Thanks for helping me out, and taking the time to respond! Much appreciation everyone!
Agreed. Use my external for backup’s only, and keep everything on my laptop. The possibility of me upgrading to an SSD, might be in the future. For now, the upgrades I just performed have made a difference. I’d say I’m happy…for the moment lol.
