Protools 8 to 10 upgrade PC question

[TogaMan]

Hi good folks -

I own a PC (Sweetwater Creation Station) which I got in Jan 2010. The bummer is that the Mbox 2 has turned out to be a dicey POS (works half the time with USB jiggle and reboot - or if I beg it hard enough not to snap crackle and pop.... sometimes it behaves). One of my clients gave me a Firewire Presonus interface (he was no longer using) with 8 inputs (way cool!). The only thing is that it requires ProTools 9 or higher which apparently also requires Windows 7 (both of which which came out a mere blink after I bought my Creation Station with 8 and Vista - bad timing apparently - but, hey what did I know?). The reason they had vista on 8 (at the time) was that many plug ins were not yet compatible with 7. Also, the Computer did not come with Firewires (which I suppose could be added). This kind of sucks as it took me months and many sessions to figure out what was up with snap,crackle,pop was the dicey USB/M Box. Damn, I suppose had I waited a few more months to purchase, my situation may have been different....

So, Am I right in guessing that if I want to use the Presonus interface (compatible with PT 9 or above) I'll have to...

Back up all my files (copy drive)
Remove Windows Vista
Remove 8
Install Windows 7
Install 10 (not the cross-grade, the whole damn thing?)
Install Firewire ports?

Sounds like a lot of crap to go through for what could be a otherwise simple cross-grade? I mean, like I have to buy ProTools 10 and not cross-grade because I have the wrong op system?) I definitely want to do it but just wanted to confirm this is the course of action I have to take. Am I missing something? ilok keys? Am I missing something here or is this scenario my confused over complication for a simpler solution?

Thanks in advance for any advise or insight!!

Jonathan

[mlemos]

hi jonathan.

unfortunately, that sounds about right but the good news is that you'll want the $500 crossgrade from protools LE to PT10 and NOT the $700 full protools 10.

and you will need an ilok.

best,
marco

[nst7]

For $819 you could also consider getting the Mbox 3 bundled with PT9, which gives a free upgrade to 10, and WAY better sound quality then either the Mbox 2 or the Presonus. Use a Guitar Center 15% off coupon and get it even cheaper.

[albee1952]

Good advice above, and here's my 2 cents. I would order a new SATA hard drive from newegg(anything 160GB and up is big enough). Pull your C: drive just as it is, and put it in the anti-static bag for later. Install the new blank drive, format and install Windows 7 64 bit. Then install PT9 or 10(whatever you get the best deal on) and see if you can get the Presonus interface up and running with PT. Only after you get this basic setup going, would I recommend anything else. Once this is working, save a drive image(Acronis True Image). The image can be saved to your second hard drive(you DO have a second internal drive for sessions, don't you??), or to any external drive(USB is fine). Once you have an image saved, then go about installing the rest of your software and plugins. Make sure you get a compatible firewire card that uses a TI chipset(SIIG is a good brand). One update you need to be aware of: with Windows 7, firewire drives are not supported(you can record to internal, USB2 and eSATA). Through all this, your old drive is sitting on a shelf. The reason is two-fold. 1, you can reinstall it and run the old setup, just as it is now. 2, once you get the new system drive all working well, with everything installed, you can use Acronis to CLONE over the old drive. Now you have a perfect backup system drive(very handy if you have a crash, get a virus, or install some new piece of whiz-bang software that trashes the rig).

BTW, I wonder if your USB issues is because you(and Sweetwater) never did the system tweaks recommended by Avid, like turning OFF the power management feature on all USB ports.....

[TogaMan]

Thanks for the replies! Appreciated !!

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by mlemos

hi jonathan.

unfortunately, that sounds about right but the good news is that you'll want the $500 crossgrade from protools LE to PT10 and NOT the $700 full protools 10.

and you will need an ilok.

best,
marco

Looks like Sweetwater is selling the PT LE to PT10 crossgrade for $399 instead of $499. I don't know if other stores will follow or not, or how long this price will last, but you can save $100 for now if you buy from Sweetwater.

Must own MBox2 or higher. Original MBox & 001 don't qualify for upgrade.

http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/protools10/

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PT10LEup