Computer Issues

[JD01]

OK - Two things:
1. I'm having some sort of computer issue - doesn't appear to be massively serious yet, but in my experience these things only tend to get worse and often get worse quickly. Today, I'm just working away (on my work machine) with my personal machine that I use for recording next to me just playing music. Then it just turned off. Nothing, not a sausage, tried pressing the power button - nope - dead. Fuck. About 3 minutes later it just restarted turned on again - I didn't even have to log in and started playing music again. This did coincide with me picking up my mobile phone which was laying on the front of it just to the left of the track-pad. Coincidence? Probably.

2. What's the best way of going about my backup - I've made some real progress with my recording techniques in the last couple of weeks and really don't want to lose it. What I've always done before is write down/memorise the file path for my recording directories, copy all of the directories for projects I care about to two external hard drives (backup of my backup). Then when I've got a new machine I've just reinstalled EZ Drummer (I no longer use EZ Drummer), the Red suite for Focusrite and the Camel Crusher. These are literally the only non-Reaper VSTs that I use.

The problem with this now is that I use Superior Drummer - its fucking massive. I don't want to go through the issue of downloading the whole thing again. 200gb. I know I'll have to re-DL and reinstall the programme. Is this really just as simple as transferring the whole SD library to my external disk and then copying it onto a new machine?
Also - the CamelCrusher. From what I understand, its no longer available. I don't think I have the original download so I don't think I'll be able to reinstall it. Does anyone know of any sort of way around this? Its the only VST I use other than Superior, the Reaper suite and free Focusrite RED suite.

3. Bonus question.
My current computer is an Acer Aspire A515-51. i58250U 1.6GHz. 8Gb RAM. My SSD seems to be 118Gb, my HDD is nearly a TB.
With the upgrades I've made to my Superior Drummer arrangement recently its been getting pretty slow opening projects and there's now a fair pause after pressing record before anything happens.
Anyone got a recommendation? - As much as I'd love a "blank" machine with no bloatware on it I'm not going to be building anything myself and then installing cracked versions of Windows - I just want something "off the shelf".

Cheers dudes!

[vomitHatSteve]

For 1, check your update history. That kind of power-cycle and restore usually indicates an intentional sleep mode. Either because the computer went to sleep or because it installed updates.
Maybe also check your battery. That's a pretty common point of failure that you may not notice if you usually leave it plugged in.

[JD01]

For 1, check your update history. That kind of power-cycle and restore usually indicates an intentional sleep mode. Either because the computer went to sleep or because it installed updates.
Maybe also check your battery. That's a pretty common point of failure that you may not notice if you usually leave it plugged in.

Ah, I had no idea it could do that. I'll see if I can work out how to check it - I hope there's not a problem 'cos the lap top works fine most of the time.

[Tadpui]

Updates would be my first guess as well. Usually it'll download the updates whenever it feels like it, but it'll try to schedule the restart during "off hours". Usually during updates it'll say something along the lines of "applying updates, please do not turn off your computer" so it'd be pretty obvious that's what it's doing.

When it comes to backing up your install of Superior Drummer, you can save off the library files on an external drive. In case of disaster, you can copy them back to the computer and install the main application through the Toontrack downloader. Then there's a way to just point the app to the libraries instead of re-downloading them. I don't recall the process off the top of my head, but I did it that way last time I had to reinstall Windows so I know it's possible.

As for Camel Crusher, there will be a .dll file in one of your VST folders (check Reaper's VST paths in settings to find them all) that you can copy. It should just be a single .dll file that you'd need, and hopefully it's named such that it'll be obvious that it's Camel Crusher. Copy it to your backup drive, and copy it back as part of the recovery process.

[JD01]

Updates would be my first guess as well. Usually it'll download the updates whenever it feels like it, but it'll try to schedule the restart during "off hours". Usually during updates it'll say something along the lines of "applying updates, please do not turn off your computer" so it'd be pretty obvious that's what it's doing.

When it comes to backing up your install of Superior Drummer, you can save off the library files on an external drive. In case of disaster, you can copy them back to the computer and install the main application through the Toontrack downloader. Then there's a way to just point the app to the libraries instead of re-downloading them. I don't recall the process off the top of my head, but I did it that way last time I had to reinstall Windows so I know it's possible.

As for Camel Crusher, there will be a .dll file in one of your VST folders (check Reaper's VST paths in settings to find them all) that you can copy. It should just be a single .dll file that you'd need, and hopefully it's named such that it'll be obvious that it's Camel Crusher. Copy it to your backup drive, and copy it back as part of the recovery process.

I had no idea you could do that with .dll files. I thought you had to install them. So if I just sent you the camel crusher .dll you could use it?

[Armistice]

Yes on the .dll files - you generally just sit them in the directory that Reaper is looking for them in and they work. No "installation" should be required, is my understanding.

[vomitHatSteve]

I had no idea you could do that with .dll files. I thought you had to install them. So if I just sent you the camel crusher .dll you could use it?

99% of what an install wizard does is just moving a .dll file to the right folder.

To check the batter, just unplug the computer from the wall and see how long it will run on battery power. They're pretty easy to replace for most non-Mac devices if that's the problem.