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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266 |
Last year I purchased BiaB ProPAK 2019 and installed the entire program along with all the styles and RTs on my Windows 10 OS hard drive. The entire installation consumes about 16 GB of space on the disk. Since then I've installed a 2 TB HDD as a second disk. Now that I've purchased the BiaB UltraPAK 2020 upgrade, I want to have BiaB set up so that it accesses all of the styles and RTs from a dedicated partition on that second HDD. In order to accomplish this, I've already copied the entire contents of the USB portable hard drive that BiaB UltraPAK 2020 came on to a 500 GB partition on my second internal HDD. Plus, I've moved all of the original installation files for BiaB ProPAK 2019 to a separate folder on that same second HDD partition from their original location on the OS disk. But I haven't yet actually upgraded my BiaB 2019 installation on my Windows 10 OS disk to BiaB 2020 because I want to know the best way to regain the 16 GB of space on the OS disk that BiaB 2019 is currently using. So, my question is as follows:
What is the best way to install BiaB UltraPAK 2020 upgrade from BiaB ProPAK 2019 so that I can end up with only the program files installed on my OS disk and also free up all the space that the styles and RTs are currently using on the OS disk? Should I uninstall BiaB 2019 and the other programs that came with it (RealBand, Coyote, etc.) from the OS disk first and then re-install the programs only on the OS disk before doing the upgrade? Or, should I leave everything as is until after I've completed the upgrade and then delete all of the styles and RTs from the OS disk? Or, can I uninstall BiaB 2019 completely from the OS disk and then only install the BiaB 2020 programs from the second HDD without having BiaB 2019 installed at all?
Tom Levan (pronounced La-VAN)
BiaB 2024 Win UltraPAK Build 1109, Xtra Style PAKs 1-11, RB 2024, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Intel Q9650 3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD & 2 TB HDD, Tracktion 6 & 7 (freebies), Cakewalk, Audacity, MuseScore 2.1 & 3.4, Synthesizer V
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,465
Veteran
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,465 |
Hi, It sounds like you might have pretty much done what I'd do. Just to clarify, though, this is how I'd go about upgrading... To make sense of the below, C:\bb is your original BIAB installation on your OS drive and D:\bb is your new installation on your 500 GB drive. 1. Copy your original 2019 BIAB from C:\bb to D:\bb keeping the directory/folder structure intact. There is no need to unregister your 2019 product. 2. At the moment, don't delete C:\bb 3. Install the 2020 UltraPak to D:\bb 4. I suggest choosing the option that will also put all Realtracks under D:\bb -- you have plenty of space with 500 GB. My UltraPak equivalent version of BIAB is on a 500 GB partition and takes up 171 GB. 5. The installation will take about an hour. 6. Once installed, start BIAB, rebuild Stylepicker and Register the product. 7. All should go for you now. 8. In a week or two's time, when you are sure that all is running well, delete the c:\BB folder and all its contents. Hope this helps, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266 |
Thanks for the reply, Noel. From what your suggesting, I would end up not having any BiaB files on my C drive. Is that correct? If so, I hadn't thought of doing it that way, but I guess it might be better than having just the program files on the C drive and all the other files on the "D" drive (mine is actually the K drive) because then everything is in one place and there's no need to uninstall anything if I decide to move BiaB to another computer (which I intend to do someday because I'm currently using my wife's computer and can't use my own computer for reasons that I won't go into here). Instead, all I need to do is deactivate BiaB on this computer and reactivate it on the other computer.
The only other thing I didn't mention is that my main OS disk is an SSD, which is considerably faster than my HDD. So, will I take a performance hit by having the program files on the HDD instead of on the SSD?
Tom Levan (pronounced La-VAN)
BiaB 2024 Win UltraPAK Build 1109, Xtra Style PAKs 1-11, RB 2024, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Intel Q9650 3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD & 2 TB HDD, Tracktion 6 & 7 (freebies), Cakewalk, Audacity, MuseScore 2.1 & 3.4, Synthesizer V
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,465
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,465 |
Hi again, Yes. I am suggesting that you put all BIAB on your K:\ drive. To be honest, I'm not sure how much of a performance hit you would feel. I've just looked up your Intel Q9650 processor and I see that it's quad core, 3.00 GHz. By comparison, my processor is quad core 3.4 GHz and on my computer, the time it takes to generate a song is around 5 seconds. I do not have a SSD. Since your hard drives are new, they will be latest technology and read/write very quickly. This may well offset the SSD gain. By leaving C:\bb in place for the moment, you will be able to compare the speed of generating a file using BBW64.EXE in C:\bb with generating the same file using BBW64.EXE found in K:\bb -- the results will speak for themselves. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,486
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,486 |
On my performance machine, I have an SSD for boot up and a second SSD for the BIAB program. I do like the faster response of the program but I admit the improvement is modest. Also, I have the RealTracks and RealDrums on a third drive, an internal hard drive.
I have a backup machine where the program is on a regular internal hard drive and the RealTracks and RealDrums are on the supplied USB drive. It all still works surprisingly well.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266 |
Thanks guys for the additional info. I just looked at my C drive and saw that RealBand is in a separate folder than BiaB. So, I assume that I have to copy the RealBand folder to my K drive as well before I begin this process, correct? Then there's the issue of Coyote, which shows up on my Programs list as a separate program and is also in a different location (C:\Program Files (x86)). Besides Coyote, I also saw Steinberg, VSTPlugins, and PowerTracks DirectX Plugins in this same folder. All three of these combined only use about 14 MB of disk space, which isn't a problem, but they do add more clutter to the folder. However, in the Program Files folder, these same folders along with the PG Music Inc folder use more than 1.25 GB of space. Would I also delete all of these folders when I delete the BiaB and RealBand folders two weeks down the road?
Tom Levan (pronounced La-VAN)
BiaB 2024 Win UltraPAK Build 1109, Xtra Style PAKs 1-11, RB 2024, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Intel Q9650 3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD & 2 TB HDD, Tracktion 6 & 7 (freebies), Cakewalk, Audacity, MuseScore 2.1 & 3.4, Synthesizer V
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,486
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,486 |
I have a hardware MIDI synth so others who use software synths will be a better resource. I believe, however, that all these VSTis, DXis etc. install to your boot drive. If the install permits going somewhere else, I think that would be quite unusual.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,465
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,465 |
I leave all my VSTs and DXis at their default installation location which is usually under C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86). My reason for doing this is because it makes upgrades, etc., much easier to manage and all music programs look to these folders for the VST/DXi. I once tried putting everything musical on my D:\ drive but I ended up getting myself in hot water -- hence settling on the above as the best way to do things. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 266 |
Well, I ran setup.exe and selected the first option. Because I had already copied everything from the USB portable HDD to my internal HDD, the setup program thought that it was running from the USB portable HDD and informed of the following as the first option:
"Run Band-in-a-Box directly from this USB hard drive.
Only install synth, plugins, and fonts on my computer hard drive.
20 MB disk space required."
IOW, setup.exe didn't need to copy everything from the USB HDD to my internal HDD because I had already done that. However, it also installed all of the BiaB HiQ Instruments to the PG Music Inc folder on my boot disk, which uses about 1 GB of space, as it did before. So, all of the other items were also installed to the boot disk, which is not a problem. I guess I'm good to go for now. Thanks again for the help, Noel and Matt!
Tom Levan (pronounced La-VAN)
BiaB 2024 Win UltraPAK Build 1109, Xtra Style PAKs 1-11, RB 2024, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Intel Q9650 3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD & 2 TB HDD, Tracktion 6 & 7 (freebies), Cakewalk, Audacity, MuseScore 2.1 & 3.4, Synthesizer V
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
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Watch the video.
You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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