Hello to all!! Need input on possible PT upgrade

[Fmaker]

My name is Richard. I bought PT 8 when it first came out. (the M-Audio version. Salesman said very easy to learn.) When I made the purchace I knew nothing about any recording except an old TEAC 4 track reel to reel in the basement back in 1982. Before I made my "PT 8" purchase, I brought my Lap top into GC and presented it to the main guy in the recording hardware dept. He booted it up... went through it for about a 1/2 hour! ( it's a Windows Vista machine) then he said, you will have no problems running PT 8 on this at all. I also bought Battery3, Kore 2 and a Profire 2626 with an M-Audio 61 and some michrophones and firewire outboard drive.. Well I got it together took 8 months to get my 1st track down. (VAIO not compatible with Pro Tools) Seems my Sony VAIO was not on the Digidesign compatibility page..... The "Salesman did not know this? Digidesign finally asked what I was running on and immeadiately told me my computer was absolutely a non compatible machine.
I proceeded to build an Intel Core i7 930 2.6 with 12 gigs of ramm and got bugs out and started to have fun.
Then life happened and my Mom who is 95 yrs old at present needed me full time and I dropped everything and did what was needed. She is doing better and I am now back to start to have some fun, low and behold..... Window7 and PT 9 have raised their heads and I already have an extra copy of Win 7. I am debating on wheather I should go ahead and up grade to PT 9 Win 7 64 bit ... If so, I would buy a new main drive and do a completely new clean install of all my software so I would have a working version if... well you know... Sorry for the long post and lack of info on specs for my system but it's not assembled at the moment otherwise I would do a PC wizzard for you all. I like to tinker,troubleshoot and I love to play guitar. Been at it for 43 years. I have the dollars now to do this... but probably will not in 2 months. My question is, all of you that are like me and build your own and have taken the plunge... Is the PT 9 upgrade with all the new plug in's worth it?

I really hope I have not taken too much of your time with a long post but if I don't ask.... I won't get any answers.
Thank everyone of you who see's what I am thinking, feeling and trying to do. I can't play live anymore because I have a very very very bad back and a very heavy Matchless 120 watt Superchief that I won't give up. Only 100 of them made LOL..... Love the tone.
Richard

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by Fmaker

Is the PT 9 upgrade with all the new plug in's worth it?

Yes

(I don't really know about new plugins, but ADC and the removal of the Digi hardware limitation are definitely worth it to me!)

[Obsidian Dragon]

+1 Yes. Main lesson learned: Never listen to the guys a Guitar Center about recording equipment. (unless you are working with GCPro)

[albee1952]

Your safest plan would be to simply pull the old system drive out and pop in a new hard drive and start loading up software. Install Windows 7 and tweak it, then install PT9 and test. Once its working well, I would save a drive image right there. Then install other stuff and 3rd party plugins. If anything messes up at that point, you can restore from the drive image.. Win7 has a basic drive imaging feature, but Acronis True Image 11 is much better.

[Fmaker]

Thanks all for help. I have purchased PT 9, one new WD Caviar Black and I am reading up on everything I can find about downloading and installing PT 9 right now. Will start tomorrow after drivers, hardware drivers are installed and Win7 tweaks have been done. Then, Awaaaaaaaayyyy we goooo!!

[JMS40]

Originally Posted by Fmaker

Then, Awaaaaaaaayyyy we goooo!!

Wow... a Jackie Gleason reference.

[TOM@METRO]

Sounds good Richard, I hope things stay well for you.

[DeyBwah]

Originally Posted by TOM@METRO

Sounds good Richard, I hope things stay well for you.

Almost pushing 10k posts Tom... you animal!