COMPLETELY Un-install Pro Tools 10 Win7

[brianiac5150]

Howdy DUC's!

I've searched and - maybe blindly - have not been able to find this information, so I'm starting a new thread. If there's another, I'd love a little prod in that direction.

Are there instructions anywhere on how to COMPLETELY (<--operative word) remove Pro Tools 10.x.x from a Windows 7 PC?

I know where and how to do things from the Control Panel>Change/Repair location, however, I'm talking about all the other directories, folders, sub-folders, files, etc... I'll use Ccleaner to take care of the registry side, but I want to know where all the resource data goes so I can take it out and start all over without anything, at all.

I'm also looking into creating a HDD mounted in an eSATA dock which only has Win7 OS and Pro Tools 10 with all it's resources on it. Then I'd simply boot to that HDD when wanting to get to work. Anyone with experience in this direction who would offer any information would be greatly appreciated.

[albee1952]

I'm a bit fuzzy on what the ultimate goal is here. Re uninstalling, go open Control Panel>Uninstall a Program; then right-click on Avid Pro Tools>select Change and in the next window, select the option that includes the HD driver and everything else(plugins, preferences, database files....). Once that's done and rebooted, run your Registry cleaner and you should be done. Then you can certainly choose to go thru your hard drives and delete anything that says Avid or Digidesign(use the Windows search function).

Another alternative that would have been simple(if you had imaged your system drive BEFORE you installed Pro Tools) would be to restore from an image(okay, I'm off my Acronis soap box now).

Re using a drive dock, I actually have all 4 of my drives in a 4 slot dock in my tower. I can pull and swap any drive in seconds, and I keep system drives in various states so I can change to Windows7 with Pro Tools 9, Windows 7 with LE8, etc A single slot dock is around $50, while $80 will get you a 3 slot dock that fits directly into a pair of 5.25" slots I also have a dock on my desktop, but that's for quick backups and such.

[soybalm]

I can only tell you that I have luck just using it as is and taking note on a few quirks that can crash it. I had more bad luck with my clean installs than afterwards. My upgrades are all handled by the Avid installer(automatic uninstaller). Many people, including myself have stopped at the prompt to uninstall the HD driver. I just click ok now and all my updates are smooth as silk. I have done clean installs on other computers and partitions and found it to be the same set of quirks that can take it down.
I can tell you this. Those eSata ports and caddies are better than anything I have seen. It makes a huge difference on a laptop of course but it's the same as having a desktop with a dedicated drive. I have a Thermaltake blacX that works well. Everything works so much better when the session is on one of those drives. Try that first. It may take all your other problems away.

[brianiac5150]

Thanks for the responses guys.

@albee1952 - if it's truly that simple, then really no question, however, often times when deleting application folder files in Windows, one is prompted that deleting such and such file (my experience has seen .dll files usually noted) is a system file and am I sure I want to delete. I have not had this happen with PT, as I've not yet done such a process. The ultimate goal is to have a system which in no way, shape or form indicates Pro Tools was ever installed. You're obviously 100% correct about the system back-ups and I'm going to look into the HDD docks you mention. BTW...do you mind sharing the manufacturer, model no., etc... for your dock(s)?

@soybalm - yeah...the docks are super useful for a lot of applications and extremely portable, as well. The whole update uninstall/install process isn't really an issue for me, however, I quickly (and stupidly) updated to 10.3.4 last night, immediately received the BSOD upon opening the exact same session I had open in 10.3.3 just before updating. That session was an 11R template session that had very little in it track-wise and zero audio clips. Just opened it and armed a track.

As mentioned in another thread, I, too, am now experiencing the same M-Audio Axiom Pro MIDI CC issues. They simply do not work correctly, whereas before it was right click, select the option, move the related controller, done. I never checked this in 10.3.3, however, seems it was there.

I've had ZERO issues updating in the past, however, would simply like to know the absolute process to accomplish the complete uninstall.

[albee1952]

Re. the SATA cages, mine is a Kingwin and newegg carries a 3 slot version:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817990012
I have that in my backup computer(along with a single slot version) and a 4 slot version in my current workhorse. Its odd that the update went bad for you as each update has worked fine here(but that's why I always save a drive image just before I install any update)

BTW, in case its not clear, whenever you uninstall ANY version of Pro Tools(even if you are going with an update) you MUST remove the HD driver too. If you don't, then you won't be able to run the installer for your desired version(whether its newer or older) because the HD driver, if left behind, will fool the installer into thinking there is still PT installed on your system(learned the hard way....thank God for drive imaging).

[brianiac5150]

Here's how absent-minded I've become in the last couple years: I built my WinPC almost exactly two years ago and then we were blessed with our son. After the information here, I got home last night, moved the guitar rig which surrounds my system and sat down beside my PC to take a look inside. Not only do I instantly see and was reminded that the HAF942 case I built inside has two hot-swappable bays, one of them also has the HDD I knew I had but couldn't - for the life of me - find. I had not connected the bay, yet, so the drive wasn't showing up in Explorer. I'm losing my frickin' mind, I tell ya.

So...now that you know I'm not so mentally well put together...I did uninstall 10.3.4, as well as the HD driver, Cclean'd the registry and started over - without deleting anything else. As mentioned above and in the install instructions, I've always deleted the HD driver before initiating any install. In my first 10.3.4 install the other night, I forgot to remove it before, however, the installer saw it and supposedly removed it - as I asked it to do through the prompting it presented. Last night I did it all first. I'm not certain this is the sole issue, however, things seemed to be working fine for the short period of time I had with it after the fact. Note: I did not attempt to open the session which gave me problems the night before, as I had already deleted it. I'm pretty confident it was a good session prior to 10.3.4. But...who knows? Oh...I also had the same issue when extracting the installer regarding name lengths being too long. I've never had this problem before, so why is it now happening within updated code? This is a no-brainer: shorten the names and re-deploy the download file. C'mon.

Back to the OP: DigiTechSupt or Avid: anyone going to chime in on this? There has to be a known and documented process for this request? Anyone???

[brianiac5150]

Just found this and will have to look into it this weekend: Trasher10

[brianiac5150]

I'm really surprised an answer has not been provided by Avid. I would think this is a process they've gone through countless times which was, as some point, documented. Simple COPY and PASTE thing here, no?

[albee1952]

No surprise here. This is, after all, a USER conference(but happily, Avid does patrol some). Here's something you may have not considered(and you REALLY should). I am assuming you want to be able to revert your system to just as it was BEFORE Pro Tools was installed? There is a very simple solution to that(and its also a solution to a myriad of other computer issues) and that's Drive Imaging. You save an image of your system drive BEFORE installing Pro Tools(or any other software or update) and you can restore your drive from the image, whether it be the next day, a month later or next year. I have a 2TB USB drive that holds nothing BUT drive images for my PT computer(I have images for LE8.0.5, PT9, PT10, 10.2, 10.3...you get the idea). I also have another USB drive that has an image for every computer I own(6 of them), so lets say my home computer gets trashed by a virus. I just reformat the drive and restore from the image. Look into it(Acronis True Image is my choice, but there are other options)

[brianiac5150]

Thanks again, albee, for your follow-up and further input. It and your time is much appreciated. As you mention...Avid does peruse these forums and the updated format does maintain this attribute, therefore, (maybe naively) I would think this a quick response from there.

Of course, all of what you've said regarding drives, backups, Acronis and what-not are spot on and in place; however, there has to be a method for doing this without wiping a disc. Yes...I want to simply make the HDD look and function as if PT was NEVER installed on it. I don't see any security risk with sharing this information and it could be a big time-saver for someone without the duplication/backup resources. Yes (again) the dup/backup is definitely the way to go, however,... I digress.