PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Build 435 Problem [Resolved]

Exactly, Matt, however, I've found that internal drives connected to the motherboard retain their settings (unless of course you re-install the O/S, in which case the re-installed O/S wouldn't know what your previous settings are.

BTW, I standardize my drive letters as follows:

C: - Boot drive with O/S and standard installed applications (C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86)), and where I can specify alternate locations for support files, I do so to minimize the size of C: (makes re-installing from an image take less time).

D: - Apps that don't go under C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86); I have a folder called D:\Apps. This is where all my PGMusic apps and other non-standard installed apps go. I also have a folder called D:\AppsData, which includes all my sound libraries, VST files, my RealTracks/RealDrums, other application support files, etc.

E: - All my created content goes here. I have a folder structure set up for various categories of files, to include my music files.

F: - my ripped MP3 files. When I rip CD's or digitize my record albums, I create two versions of MP3 files. The F:\MP3-LoFi folder contains the songs ripped at 128 kbps; the F:\MP3-HiFi folder contains the songs ripped at 320 kpbs. The 128 files go on my iPod Classic (160GB; although I really need a 250GB ultimately, which won't happen since they don't make it anymore). The 320 files are for listening while at home through the better speakers. I currently have about 35,000 songs under each folder (on my way to about 55,000 once I finish with all my record albums).

G: - my CD/DVD/Bluray drive

H: - my first virtual CD drive \__ Nero lets you create audio CD
I: - my second virtual CD drive / images, that I mount and play

J: - the drive letter usually picked up by any new external USB drive I connect to my computer.

K: - external USB drive, that when mounted, is my BacKup drive, containing data backups and drive image backups. Only connected when needed.

S: - external USB drive, that when mounted, is my Software InStall drive. I have all my software, license files, login information, software tracking spreadsheet, loaded on this drive. I keep it up to date, and so I never have to do the CD shuffle or worry about where the latest patch is.

I use this configuration on both my laptop and my desktop and have for probably the last 10 years. I also have a private network setup with a router between the two computers (using 10.10.10.x IP range). This lets me work easily between the two computers, but lets each one keep its own wireless connectivity without bridging the networks together. For this, I map network drives between the two computers:

P: - the C: drive on the other computer
Q: - the D: drive on the other computer
R: - the E: drive on the other computer
S: - if mounted, the USB S: drive (see above) on the other computer. One will have the physical drive, the other will have the mapped drive, but both computers can see and use the same content.
T: - the F: drive on the other computer.

Each computer does the same drive mappings (in fact, I do it with a batch file that lets me turn them on or off).

Okay, now that I've completely hijacked this thread on a different tangent, back to the Build 435 problem...

I have tried to set the same scheme on the backup PC as my production machine, but since it has fewer drives (and is 120 miles away, so it's not networked), I can't quite swing it. This keeps me on my toes, though, remembering where I put things. Come to think of it, that's becoming more of a problem outside of music!

/ Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

Hi Matt.

I ran the 436 patch and got some interesting errors about files not being loaded because they already exist. I clicked through and BIAB opened normally and the patch did take. However, when I rebooted, windows went into 'Disk Check' mode, (on the drive in question), and it took most of the afternoon and all last night to finally get through the tests! I'm guessing you were right about the HDD being bad, (3 yr old WD drive).

When I checked this morning windows had booted so I didn't get any error messages. I did however, see several lines during the 'Disk Check' that refereed to BIAB samples. Could it be there is a bad sector where BIAB installed files? I'll do more checking.

I did try to run Superior Drummer last night and it took forever to load the kits, (samples are on the drive in question), so that also confirms something is going bad with this drive.

Thanks for everyone's help. I'll keep working with it.

Thanks John.

On my screwy system I have three 'swap-able' OS drives and five other drives. Audio, Audio Backup 1, Audio Backup 2, Samples, System Backup / Temp, (partitioned drive). I try to maintain drive letter consistency across all the OS's so it's easier to keep track of things.

When I added the two new 2TB drives back in March I ended up with an additional physical drive so I had to shift the drive letters. Apparently I forgot to change them in my Music OS drive so that confused BIAB when I installed the patch.

It's looking like the problem IS the actual HDD, (as Matt suggested), so I working on that.

I forget the name, but there is a utility I used to use that would run a brute force test on a hard drive, the sort of test you run overnight like MEMTEST for checking RAM. It may be a Western Digital Utility. I'll see if I can find it. The reason I've forgotten is that my WD drives have been very reliable in the last decade, but problems can happen.

Check your drive temperature. Get a utility like Speccy. If a drive's performance is intermittent like you describe, that might be it on a summer day. If the temp is running high, check the cooling fans for dust.

Another basic test: did you rule out malware? That can make you tear out hair trying to isolate problems that aren't even hardware. Run Malwarebytes to start.

Thanks to Matt and John and everyone! Turns out it was the HDD going bad. I never could get Windows 'Check Disk' to complete it's scan. It would lock up about ¾ of the way through. WD's Data LifeGuard showed both good and bad so I just replaced the drive. I was unable to copy many of my sample libraries from the failing drive but these can be reinstalled so all is good.

Thanks again!

Glad you figured it out!

Hey, we get one right every few years!

You guys did great! I was really concerned that it might be the Mother Board and began researching a new build. While I do plan on doing that this year, now there is not such a rush.

Thanks again!