PG Music Home Forums FAQ and Knowledge Base Band-in-a-Box for Windows FAQ How do I install my Band-in-a-Box program?

Wondering how to install from Download Links, DVDs, a flash drive, or hard drive? Here are some tips: 

Download Links Installation 

*Having trouble downloading? Check out our FAQ "I just placed an order but am unable to download the software" HERE

Once you have successfully downloaded your entire purchase from your My Products page, you will need to run those installers.  

• Option 1: Manually click on each installer (one at a time) and follow the prompts in the Installation Wizard. Unless you specified otherwise when downloading, your installation files should be found in your "Downloads" folder. 

*Tips for downloading and installing an entire UltraPAK or UltraPAK+ (previously the EverythingPAK) on a Windows computer can be found HERE

• Option 2 (for Band-in-a-Box ONLY): Manually install the main Band-in-a-Box program (plus Hi-Q Instruments, MIDI SuperTracks, Artist Performances, BonusPaks, XtraStyles PAKs if relevant) and then use the Download Manager from within Band-in-a-Box to install all your Loops, Shots, RealTracks and RealDrums. 

DVD Installation

Insert your DVD's into your DVD drive, view the content of the disc(s), and run the installer(s). Use the default locations in the Installation Wizards to ensure all fonts, software synths, demos etc. go where they need to be! 

Click HERE to watch a YouTube video that shows you how to install Band-in-a-Box from DVD's on a Windows computer. 

Flash Drive Installation 

Insert your flash drive into a USB 2 or 3 port on your computer, view the contents of the drive, and run the installers. Use the default locations in the Installation Wizards to ensure all fonts, software synths, demos etc. go where they need to be! 

*You should not be running the software directly from the flash drive, it needs to be installed onto your computer. 

Hard Drive Installation

You have three installation options when you purchase Band-in-a-Box^® on an external hard drive. To get started, plug the hard drive into your USB 2 or 3 port(s), view the contents of the drive, and run the setup file.  

1. Run everything from the external hard drive provided - installing only the fonts and software synths to your internal drive.  WINDOWS VIDEO   MAC VIDEO
2. Install Band-in-a-Box^® to your computer's internal drive but leave the RealTracks and RealDrums on your external hard drive.  WINDOWS VIDEO   MAC VIDEO
3. Install everything to your computer's internal hard drive and just keep the hard drive as a backup.  WINDOWS VIDEO  MAC VIDEO

*If your computer isn't recognizing the hard drive, please follow the troubleshooting steps found HERE

If you get stuck, please don't hesitate to contact us! 

Hi,

I currently have BIAB 2020 installed. I just purchased the Ultrapak 2022 upgrade.

To get a fairly clean new 2022 BIAB installation without too many redundant installations of RealTracks and other features, do I need to:

1) Uninstall BIAB 2020 and install BIAB 2022 from scratch?

2) Install only the main program plus the RealTracks and other installation files that were not part of the BIAB 2020 package?

3) Install everything, including for example, the same/similar RealTrack files that were already installed with BIAB 2020

Thanks for your help!
/Z

Choice # 3.

My understanding is the installer will not install a file if you already have the same file and the date is the same or newer. On the other hand if PG Music has updated some files then the installer will install the updated file.

Hmmm... my experience is the opposite
I had the same idea as you and I did that with an older installation of BIAB 2020. BIAB would keep reinstalling the same identical files and the overall size of my installation would just grow and grow.

I included option #3 in my question because I don't know if this issue has been addressed and to check whether other people have experienced the same problem when doing this.

I had the same experience as you the first time I updated Band-in-a-Box from my initial installation. My issue was I was telling the installer files the wrong directory path in such a way the installer was nesting files and folders. Post a screen shot of the directory path of one of your installer files. I bet a forum member can solve that issue.

I do not run my program from an external hard drive so my suggestion is an opinion and not founded on experience. If it hasn't worked for you in the past, I wouldn't follow the suggestion either.

The main issue I'm aware of using an external hard drive is Windows assigns a dynamic drive letter each time the external drive is attached. Sometimes the drive letter is the same as before which is fine and sometimes it's not which can cause issues. Windows has a procedure to assign a static drive letter to an external hard drive but not everyone knows the procedure exists. Because of the dynamic drive letter issue I'm cautious about suggesting the option. You are already using the external hard drive option so I assumed you have resolved that barrier to your satisfaction.

Everyone has their preferred way to work. I hope you'll let us know which option you choose and how it goes.

I've got it installed on my main drive, not an external drive!

OK, so I had a live chat with PG Music support and I was told the same thing -- that the BIAB 2022 installation would skip over whatever was previously installed and I was assured that my overall installation size wouldn't just grow and grow. I was told to expect 140 to 150 GB of files in total.

I used the Download Manager and simply downloaded everything, even RT sets that I had already previously installed (although the files were not identical -- each was slightly different in file size and composition than the versions I got when I installed BIAB 2020). Then I clicked install for each of the downloaded files and let the Download Manager handle everything.

Results: after starting up the program and unpacking the new styles etc., the installation size was 144 GB. Everything seems to be working fine at first glance. I'm quite happy with it.

I think the difference is that I manually installed each file before, and it probably created redundancies and grew my installation size beyond what was really needed. To confirm this, I even manually reinstalled files I had already installed and, sure enough, the installation size just kept growing.

So kudos to the PG Music team for sorting this out. I highly recommend doing everything through the Download Manager!

And many thanks for your helpful answers, Jim, which led me in the right direction.

Glad to read everything is correctly installed. Thanks for the update.

Hi,
I would like to ask for help with a new installation of BIAB because my setup is anything but standard.
I can boot into 4 instances of Win10 ("main","work","music" and "games") on my Dell desktop PC. This may seem strange, but I have reasons for this.
All of these instances have the same Machine ID and have access to data partition with letter "G". This partition is dedicated for my music data.
I would like to use BIAB as VST plugin from the "music" instance and also use BIAB in standalone mode from the "main" instance.

My first question is ... Could I install whole BIAB exclusively to the data disk "G" without touching anything on disk C? (registry, INI files, ...)
YES: That's great, thank you, I have no other questions. :-)
NO:
I'm aware I have to install BIAB twice. Do I need 2 licenses of BIAB despite the fact that it will be done on one physical PC hardware?
Could you recommend me what is really necessary to install to disk C (twice) and what content I can install to disk "G"?
Do I be able to process future BIAB upgrade for both "main" and "music" instances?

Thank you for your advice.

Band-in-a-Box does not affect the Windows registry. PG Music allows Band-in-a-Box to be installed three times.

In your case you would want two installations, one to the "main" instance and one to the "music" instance. So you will end up with: drive letter for "music":\bb and drive letter for "main:\bb.

Assuming you want all RealTracks and RealDrums to be installed to the "G" drive you would choose the custom location setting by selecting Ctrl+E to open the Preferences window. Select the RealDrums and RealTracks button to enter the custom location as displayed below.

Hello Jim,
thank you very much for your explanation!