Just ordered the 2023 UltraPAK upgrade in HD (which also comes with electronic install).

Now, if the UltraPAK will just write over my 2022 MegaPAK, but I only have 100 GB
left on my desktop's HD, will the electronic install stop at some point and tell me there's not enough space, or will the UltraPAK just write over the MegaPAK and cover it?

I don't know the sizes of those paks, but much of what is on each one is files from earlier versions. The installer will not overwrite files of the same date, just add the newer ones PG Music Support could tell you the installed sizes of each package.

When you fill up a hard drive, be sure to leave 15% free space, or the drive performance will begin to suffer. SSDs need even a bit more free space.

The UltraPAK install is more than 100GB so your existing hard drive does not have enough space to accommodate the install of the 2023 UltraPAK. Also, You need to leave some free space on your primary hard drive for Windows use.

The good news is you do not need to install your 2023 UltraPAK onto your computer hard drive. The 2023 UltraPAK will run on the external hard drive without no decrease in performance at all.

The UltraPAK hard drive includes an installer file. When you run the installer file you will be given four installation choices. One choice is a minimal install that places a very little number of files on your computer hard drive and runs from the external hard drive.

Once you run the installer, select the minimal install to the computer hard drive and the installer finishes running you will be able to remove much of the MegaPAK files from your computer drive. However, you may want to talk to PG Music or post in the forum before you do.

Jim is right, you can run most of the program from the supplied USB drive. The performance in loading files is diminished somewhat but probably not much, and the performance of the CPU for regenerating songs is of course the same. You can even recover space from your hard drive if you do the minimal install. We can advise you what files you can delete if you decide to go this route.

I don't know about the PG Music installers, but most modern installers first compute the available space. They don't start then abort midway.

If what's presently in your computer is a mechanical hard drive, it may be worth considering fitting a larger SSD in its stead. That would gain you the space and also a useful boost in PC performance.

And Gordon is right. The single best improvement you can make in BIAB is a faster CPU. A close second place is changing from a Hard Drive to a SSD.

SSD's:
500gb - $28
1tb - $48

Cloning software (exact image of your current drive) - free

Go ahead everyone is doing it these days....

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO-Plus-MZ-V7S2T0B/dp/B07MFZXR1B?th=1

Thanks everyone for the replies. My desktop IS an SSD, 500GB (actually 475 according to the analysis) running Windows 10 on an Intel i3 9100 (so that would be a quadcore) at 3.60 ghz.

Really appreciate the tips, I'll first run the external HD at minimal install then take it from there.

There's even the possible hybrid install. The program can be on one drive, the RealTracks on another, and the RealDrums on yet another.

Ultrapack with all xtra packages installed is around 175gb.
And I would guess around 150gb without xtra material (xtrapacks,loops etc)

Right click on your c: /bb folder, see the size. If it is 100gb or more, then you should be ok...

I would try to avoid leaving less than 25-30gb of space on HD.

I've got two of those merged together for my C:\ drive. They are nice and fast.

FWIW, I think there's a fair bit of "you get what you pay for" with SSDs. I've tended to use Samsung EVO parts; The QVO parts are a higher density but less long-lived; the PRO parts are at, well, pro proces, but are "enterprise standard", have the lowest density and the longest working life. Sadly, yes, SSDs do wear out

Personally, I would buy one of these:
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-2tb-870-evo-series/p/N82E16820147794?Item=N82E16820147794&quicklink=true

A 2TB drive, and install it as your SECOND drive in the system. Unless you're running a laptop. But, if you're running a desktop, you should be able to add this to the system, and it saves you the hassle of having to copy everything over to a new drive. If you're not computer savvy, there are tons of video on YouTube on how to add a new drive. Your computer should already have the power connection off the power supply to run the drive. It should also come with the SATA drive connection you'll need to connect it to your computer.

The price is good for the amount of data storage you're getting.

After installation, you can uninstall the MegaPak and install the new UltraPak. You might want to consider copying over the old MegaPak to the new drive, and then installing over top of that. That way, if you have any additional files, they'll be saved and the install will come with a new licensing key, so you should be good to go.

Gary

Oh yes, you did say desktop, I missed that. The external drive on a USB port should work fine, though a faster USB port is best, of course, and a drive on a USB cable isn't too much of a nuisance.

With a desktop machine, it's usually pretty easy to install a second SATA drive if you wish. Most desktop machines will handle four or more.


Laptops, of course, often have only one drive bay and usually have few USB ports. If one wants a keyboard or whatever in one, a sound module in one, etc., you pretty soon also need a USB hub and a wall power supply and the whole thing soon becomes a rat's nest of reliability issues.

Mine is a 3 yr. old Acer SSD, hasn't failed me yet, but I have a recent HP 500GB external HD that's still sealed in the little box since I haven't done anything with it yet (Lazy Procrastinator First-Class here).

I want to back up my entire computer on it but I thought that would take hours and hours so I haven't gotten around to doing it yet. I know, I know, Famous Last Words lol

They are all pretty reliable, but there are differences.
If the use is mostly read-only like a BiaB-dedicated drive would be, it should last for decades. If it's read-write intensive it'll wear out quicker. Even the higher density, lower usage parts usually come with a guarantee of a couple of years.

I believe what they do is build the chips with a fairly high percentage of redundancy and swap out areas as they get tired. They also try to share writes about the chips to even out the 'wear'.

It's something to be aware of, but not something to worry about excessively.

OK, so I got delivered the 2023 UltraPAK external HD. I uninstalled the 2022 MegaPAK (after making sure all my work in it is saved to "Music" on my PC). Now I'm ready to plug in the UltraPAK HD for the first time, change the drive letter to "Z" (appreciate that tip!) and start making music with it.

Well, if the UltraPAK will run by itself from the USB port, why would I need to do any install at all, even if it's only a minimal install? Is installing some files necessary to run the HD?

You do need to run the installer. There are some management files that need to be installed on C: drive. This includes some fonts etc. that need to be installed in Windows. The size of the installed files is quite small.