General Music Chat

Hey Mike,

Im not sure exactly ya need to know about the C drive??? All I know how to tell ya is that first I have 2 HD's .. C and D..C is use for everthing including a partial Temp file dump for cool edit info files..The D drive is for cool edit infoTemp files only...The C drive is 40GB so is the D. It currently says Capacity:38.1 GB 13.3 GB used 24.8GB free...Thats all I know how to tell ya???...Well, Im down here right now tryin to mix, change volumes, etc..and SHE doesnt wanna do this AT all..SHES playin outta time, muting the HH in places, distorting. BUT, father time seems to straighten her out..I wait a few minutes ,then shes OK...For a while..
Each time SHE really raises hell then stops , I hear that knock follow by the winding down sound...

Anyway, thats the latest ... stay tuned...
Might have to have SANS call me in a shrink or prescribe some "MEDS"

Thanks,
John

Well, the C doesn't seem to be affected that bad (looking at your percentage of usage). If I were you, I'd postpone recording and mixing.

I won't try to explain how you would go bout it, because I'm so not good at explaining, you know? If you gave me the PC in my hands, I'd do it in less than an hour.

Anyways, you should get a brand new/empty HD (like Mike said) and transfer all your music files (including the little files that Cool Edit scatters around) onto that new HD. "How am I gonna do that, Andrew?" Well, I'm not sure if you'd be able to switch your current HD's mode from Master to Slave and vice versa. So, I'll give you 2 solutions:

1. Upload the files to www.4shared.com, and download em on your other computer (which I have no idea how much space it's got). It's a hassle, but it's a solution nevertheless.
2. Use a lil flash card (preferably the 1 Gega or 512 Mega). Plug it in and copy all your files there. Plug it out and load the files onto that other computer.

You don't have to be computer "wise" to do either one of those. I can explain THAT if you want any help.
I've been in some of those sticky situations and they're annoying.

andragon's right on... I doubt yer gobbling up 13gigs on one recording... but just so we know - how many tracks you running at once?

(btw - you answered exactly what I wanted to know)
you may wanna go find yer soundcard's settings and bump up the buffer.
that can choke out a recording quick too...
haven't used cool edit in a while so you'll have to hunt around the options screen... or just do a google search on "cool edit sound card buffer length".

it could just be that the hd is about to croak... but we could try this first.
hadn't thought about it b4 but do you know how much ram you have on this machine?

ps yeah, listen to andragon... get a new hd if ya can... this will be the best way to save the stuff... it's way faster than any other interface (a local hard drive) and if you use a shock wristband it's easy to add/change out w/o doing any damage. sounds like you have two drives on one cable (c and d drives) and this means you should have at least one available port... just get a drive, and a cable, plug it in, format and yer good to go...
kid - go look up a picture of a hard drive on google image search and this will show you what to look for in yer case.

for the record: you could change master to slave - it won't do any damage... you can have a master on the the secondary ide port and it'll work fine too, but if you do get a new one just set the little jumper on the back to "cable select" and don't worry about it.
we'll cover this when/if we get to it.

Hey Gang,

See I dont know what a HD is really ..I know what it does..See to me, in my mind ,I have 2 HD's C and D...If C is bad , can I use D for cool edit?
I have 750 MB of RAM... The session should NOT be taxing the HD..Im runnin 8 tracks and 6 of them are just drum parts you know , the BD track ,HH, Toms, SD , crash cym etc....I think it is the HD going bad becuase NOW, it wont even mix the session..When I go to mixdown to file, it hangs up (never has done that in the past)..THen the knockin sound knocks one time , then the winding down sound, then a box apprears that says"Windows delayed write failed".. data will be lost...BUT, it doesnt totalaly kill it??? In 30-60 sec.. I can play the session in multitrack mode...BUT, like I say, it wont mix down anymore..Seems thats too much for it now...When you guys say "get another HD , do you mean go buy one?..If so, how much are they..Im clueless...Yeah , the look ahead buffers and rec/play buffers have been working fine and have on sessions MUCH bigger than this so I really think with the computer itself thats the prob becuaseof it makng that knocking and winding down noise, plus what its telling me about VOL 1 hard disk etc...Like I was askin, by having 2 HD's C and D..Could I use the 40GB D drive?..Wish I could get the meaning of what our sayin but guys ,I just dont have enuff fundemental knowledge about how all this works. Im busted broke also and couldnt afford to fix this right now.. 50-100 bucks maybe, but that would be it...I just heard the knocking noise and winding sound again and I wasnt eben runnin cool edit..I think its gettin worse..Is that how a HD is...Just goes bad? Keeps gettin worse till it finally dies??..See these are thing I dont even know...
ZIP is gonna call me tontie and walk me through some things..Maybe with his hands on help, Ill be able to describe whats happening better
Thanks again for hangin in there with me..Im gonna go back and re read what you guys are say and see If I can do some testing...Ive already back up pretty much every thing on a thumb drive...The 13GB used in the C drive is ALL my music...I just saved mixdowns and a few pics(2GB)..Gosh I takes for ever for the copying of files...13 GB would take all day.. ...Anyway, if you could explain what ya mean by getting a new HD and if my D drive would work , that would further my whole understanding of this along a lil further...
Thanks ,
John

OH BTW,

Thought this might be important..When I go to mix, it starts out fine, THEN that knock with the winding sound appears, and it stops mixing, then 3-4 secs ,It starts mixing again BUT, the time left to mix (listed in the box) goes WAY up ..It mixes some more THEN , knock /wind sound again , it stops...BUT it will finish..The mix sounds like something from another planet..skippin , playin to slow, distorted. etc... Thought this might help...

John

ok you can get a 500gb hd from walmart for $100

you may have two but...
A) could be that you have a partition on one drive - this shows up as two drives... an easy way to tell if you ACTUALLY have two... look up hard drive photos on google image and then open the case and see how many you got.

B)the c drive is the system drive (it has files you need to run programs on it)... -I'm certain the issue is with the "c" drive... and even if it's with the "d" drive, if you start recording here(c drive) you'll not only limit the amt of tracks at once you can record, but you can potentially run out of space and have the computer land in a place where it cannot continue to run.

"delayed write failed" IS def a hd issue.
let me know what else I can do.

Okay I'll try to break it down simply, but don't expect results. I'm not a good teacher

A hard disk is that black/silver a-bit-bigger-than-your-palm device that is inside your CPU. It's also what I refer to as HD. Like this:

This HD is (in your case) 80Gegas and stores all the files that you got (including the music ones and the system files that come with your Windows). You know all those letters C, D, etc. ? These are called partitions. Literally, they're the capacity of your HD divided into "parts."

Whoever set your computer up split your HD into 2 partitions: C and D. [Are you following?]
And the C has all the Windows files that make your computer work properly. That is why I always say "Leave that partition alone and use up the other ones."
Partitions are like plants; they need a lil space to breathe.

Also make sure you have a good Anti-virus while we're at it

nice work andragon...
I would add:
note the red cable going in... that's a sata cable. the cable to the right of that is the power cable.
yours may have a much wider "ribon style" IDE cable instead of the sata cable...

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the pic and info andragon..I tell ya , this is gettin more confusing as the day goes on...Im able to open other sessions ,play them in multitrack mode...BUT, if I try to mix down just 5 seconds of a guitar and bass track, it turns out draggin and skippin/poppin..Plays fine in multi track???.BUT NOW, Im not hearin that knock and whine when I mix ??Is the hard drive responsible for cool edit being able to MIX?..I thought that was CPU???...Yeah , Ill take this thing apart later tnoite to see how many HD's it has...This is getting strange boys..

John

Well Boys, ....Its curtains for the D drive..It no longer is showing up???
Cool Edit ask me to choose another temp folder...Then I clicked on MY COMPUTER and D was gone..BUT, cool edit is mixing now...Bogged down during using the compressor though...Its still puzzling...Why wont C handle it just fine???...It has 24GB of space...Oh , well, I guess now we know what it is?? Right?...

Thanks again boys for all the help

John

It may be just a glitch. I'm not sure why one partition of the 2 would fail and the other one to work.

And, you're welcome.

the processor "processes" things.... ie it is involved in anything you do on a computer...
the hd is storage... so anytime you store to or get from it -it is in use, and this includes a lot of 'temp storage' that goes on behind the scenes...

you can use the c drive... but the c and d drive might be part of the same physical drive... ie you can take a drive and turn it into two drives by partitioning it... this may or may not be the case for you.
if it is the case it's just a matter of time before your system drive pukes too... then you loose your entire installation... your programs, your settings - your internet bookmarks, any docs you saved there, your drivers, etc. as long as the drive is still "spinning" there is potential to recover all data on it...

cool edit is probably mixing now cause it automagically started using the c drive instead of the d.

if c has 24gigs of space and is NOT the sm physical drive you could use it for a while... but when you run that drive out of space you are going to have more severe problems.
the comp uses that drive for temp storage when you run any program you have... when you are using the sm drive to run progs and store info to you are really heating up that drive and it is ten times more likely to puke. you also won't get the same performance...
only you can decide whether it's worth it to record there...
good luck!
let me know if I can be of any more help.
cheers

Hey Gang,

Welll....I believe death has finally come...As I was talkin Gtr Zip on the PH last nite late and SHE was knockin more and more...Im proud of her though She did one last mixdown with compression before she left us... I turned her on this morning and she was showing "NONE" for a primary slave and wouldnt boot past the "Primary Hard Disk Failure"..Ive got her apart and its kinda dirty inside..Im gonna hose her down and do like you guys said and unplug it, beat on it a bit, (like we did in the 60's.. )And just MAYBE and can get her to come to life long enuff to get the rest of my sessions..
Anyway, it doesnt look hopeful does it?..You guys have furthered my understanding of computers more than ya know...Maybe this was a necassary evil..

thanks,
John

well kid... I hate to say I told ya so... but... well, you know the rest.

let it sit for a while and it may spin again... at that point you really want to copy 1/4 of it at a time to another drive (this may keep it from overheating).
go out and git a 80gig drive for $60, now that you've removed it you pretty much know how to install one... but make sure you format it.
good luck.
mv