XXHighEnd

This procedure describes how to upgrade your XXHighEnd PC to a new Operating System as provided by Phasure on a 2.5" HDD.

As of now (January 2014) this is available for Windows 8 and it can be obtained for 225 euros (ex VAT for those liable to VAT) including world wide shipping by normal mail.
Comes with a backup on DVD and an official Windows License for the OS.
Edit : This mentioned "backup" is of the original Windows OS DVD; Not the tweaked version; A layman's procedure to make a backup of the XXHighEnd adjusted version (see below) is a work in progress.

The HDD comes fully configured with XXHighEnd for usage with the Phasure NOS1 DAC with around 500 general OS changed settings. It is assumed that an XXHighEnd license is available (the disk is shipped with Activated XXHighEnd).
Regarding third party software : The Windows 7 Shell is installed as well as IMDisk (RAMDisk).

The below describes how to exchange the Operating System HDD which is internally assembled.
Notice that you have the option to later easily swap the OS HDD's so you can compare (step 5a and 5b).

Edit :
Actually this procedure described below is kind of awkward since it includes the comparison of the old and the new Operating System. Meaning : The way this is proposed assumed an optimal end situation while the comparison can be performed far more easy and it will show the differences easily. However, to get to the ultimate when the new OS is to be judged as better for you, you should apply the steps below. At first though you can easily apply the below :

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0211a.jpg)
Go to the Advanced section (see mouse arrow) and set the field to the right of the large arrow to Yes. Next :

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0217a.jpg)
Never mind the "See Manual", but see what's to the right of the arrow;
Reboot your PC, regularly hold down the Del key so you will end up in the BIOS; find this screen which is under the section where you see the mouse arrow. Now mind the "WDC WD3200" you see there; yours can be different. Notice that you are looking for a HDD and not the DVD ROM drive or the "MBA Slot" you will see also. Now write down what you see there for a HDD.
Exit the BIOS (Rightmost section and Apply "Save" at the question which comes forward), and just before that :

Remove the HDDs you may have in either 3.5" bays at the left side;

Just put in the new OS HDD in the removable 2.5" bay (the one in the sight side of the PC after taking out the SSD in there (but read step 5a below about the SSD removal);
When the system is up, go into the BIOS again;

So now exit the BIOS (see two paragraphs above here) and let the system reboot. Go into the BIOS again;

Again navigate to the last screen you see above and click on the "Hard Drive BBS Priorities" folder icon. A screen now will show with the two HDDs you have in there. One of them will be the HDD you wrote down, and the other one will be the new one. Click on the entry (which shows a HDD) in the right hand side of the field "Boot option #1". Now a popup screen appears with again the two HDDs and you must choose the new HDD (IOW not the one you wrote down).
Click the back arrow in the top left of the screen and you will see that your new HDD is now in the boot options list (and the old one disappeared).
Exit, Save and reboot.
Now you will be using the new OS.

When you want to compare with the old OS, shut down, remove new HDD from its Bay and boot.
When you again want to use the new OS, put in the new HDD again and apply the above procedure (maybe this is not needed because the new HDD will be on top of the boot list, but check it anyway).

Photos of this latter steps to be added ...

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0.
Shut down, switch off at the back of the PC and pull the mains cord (don't forget this latter step).


1.
Remove the 3 screws you see in the top (picture below).

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0188b.jpg) High Resolution link (http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0188.jpg)

2.
Slide the cover backwards and lift it.

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0189b.jpg) High Resolution link (http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0189.jpg)

3.
Open the front cover, open the both doors to the 3.5" bays and remove any disks in there. Leave the doors open.
Remove the 4 bolts at the arrows. Watch out : The two bolts at the back side are not the same as those on the front side (so keep track of which came from where).

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0190b.jpg) High Resolution link (http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0190.jpg)

4.
Put the bracket on its side as you see in the picture. Put a newspaper or anything under it like you see there.
But watch out : Take very good notice of how the cables go as soon as you get sight of them. So, prepare yourself for when you later reassemble the bracket; if you skip this step you may be in trouble later.
See the HDD under the bracket. It is this one we are going to replace.

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0191b.jpg) High Resolution link (http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0191.jpg)

Loosen these screws but leave them be so the blue silicon washers can stay (see picture under the next one) :

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0192b.jpg) High Resolution link (http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0192.jpg)

5a.
If you don't want to put the new HDD in the place of the old, but wish to use it from the 2.5" removable bay from now on, skip step 6. (Notice : This will eliminate the usage of the SSD which normally is in the 2.5" bay meant for Galleries which you probably won't use; also notice that future XXHighEnd usage targets to use Galleries from elsewhere, so don't worry if you fon't use Galleries at this moment anyway (including you not knowing what this is about in the first place)).
Instead to this : Follow the data cable (this is the smaller connector) to the place where it's stuck in the Motherboard, and remove the cable from its connector there (just let the cable be in the case). Also disconnect the both cables at the HDD's end and lay aside the HDD. Put a sticker "W7" on it. You can now use it later from the 2.5" bay to boot from (and compare with the new W8 OS HDD which will be used from the same removable 2.5" bay).

5b.
Go to the BIOS later (before the first boot - press the Del key regularly after swithcing on the PC) and take care that the below is set (Boot from SATAIII).
Notice that this step assumes that the boot disk will now be used from the 2.5" removable bay (see 5a).

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0211a.jpg)

6.
So HDD is loose.

Now have the new HDD ready; Remove the cables from the old HDD and put them to the new one. Try to do this one by one and with both HDDs in the same position, so it will be more comfortable to put in the connectors to the HDDs (with the notice that you won't be able to really look at the back of the HDD to connect).

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0193b.jpg) High Resolution link (http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0193.jpg)

7.
Put back the bracket; Mind the positioning of the cables as referred to in step 4. Take something like a screwdriver to hold aside the cables as you see in the picture so the cables won't end up under the black rubber "foot" under the bracket.

(http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0197b.jpg) High Resolution link (http://www.stordiau.nl/xxhighend pc/img_0197.jpg)

8.
Put back in all the bolts, put on the cover (slide towards the front as final step), but in the 3 bolts at the back side and ...
Done !

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When you chose to boot from the removable 2.5" bay, you now can swap Operating Systems by means of putting in the OS disk you like; Shut down, exchange the HDDs and reboot.

Peter,

I assume it can put in any pc?

 :)

Yes ...

That is a nice idear!!  :) :) :)

Nice idea Peter! 

For those of us with spare HDD/SSD and a spare Windows license will you offer an image?  It would be nice not to have to purchase another drive and windows license and shipping. 

Anthony

Anthony,

At first I couldn't understand how you came to that question. But then I read back in the first post of this topic and found that I made a mistake in it. See the "Edit" in there.

The mistake I made is almost psychological because I have been working on such an image as a means of backup and restore. So imagine a restore being performed in (really) 2 minutes. You can make the backup yourself (4 minutes) or I can make it here prior to shipping (and some variations can be thought of ;)). But point is : The procedure to, say, physically perform this all is almost undoable even for me. This is a Windows 8 thing (call it a bug, or just call it "Windows") but for example just (fresh !) installing Windows 8 on to a system that contains Windows 7 already won't work most of the time (Windows 7 disk must be physically detached) and in this case this is about an image indeed which can be restored BUT not over a live OS (obviously). This means it needs 2 HDDs for it if not 3. This, while the "backup" means is for a reason : the OS is dead. So how to restore ? can only be of an installable version and that is not this HDD (we offer).

I have been working on this for weeks and weeks and weeks; It is outside of the subject, but just try it : Make a formal backup through Windows procedure (try to find that in the first place), waste a couple of DVDs on it (it needs 4 of them) and then try to restore that. It is IMPOSSIBLE. Why ? because W8 does not accept a live OS in that situation. So, buy a new HDD or make it new on another PC (thus screw out and back in etc.) then it can work. But come on, this is nothing for the layman anymore, and it needs such lengthy descriptions.

Oddly enough, my own means of making a backup also needs two live OS HDDs, but you need to have those *first*. Procedure (description) for that is easy (also think about the removabe HDD bays) but it needs the PC to be shipped with two OS HDDs.

You didn't ask for this "information" but anyway this is how I made the mistake, because it is all over my head and wish to solve it (with the notice that the PC really is targeted to those not knowing much about Windows PCs).

Peter

Hi Peter,

I install the o/s on all of my computers using a usb drive that is setup as a boot drive because only one of the computers has an optical drive. 

My backup software is Acronis (http://www.acronis.com.au/homecomputing/trueimage/) which allows me to make an "image" of the drive (or multiple images in time for that matter) that I can use to restore everything on that drive, including the operating system and settings, applications and files at a future date.  I have not had to use the restore function yet but I think that it may be one idea to get the functionality that you (or maybe just me) are looking for.  Just a thought.

If you are interested I can play around with the restore function to see if I can get it to work.  I have a handful of spare drives sitting around that I could use.

Anthony

Just for my understanding Peter. Do you manually make this 500 settings on any new HDD?  :wacko:

 :)

Gerard,

:nea:

Anthony,

Acronis is OK (I use that myself too) but it is not something that I "briefly use" to restore (or backup). It is also not much intuitive and nothing to really give to that layman. Costs money as well.

Don't attempt that Windows backup, because it takes ages (and IIRC it can only backup to DVD, but not sure).

Regards and thanks,
Peter

Hi Peter,

For the ones that don´t use your PC and even for the ones that already have W8 installed could be some advantages buying your hdd, mostly due to the around 500 OS modifications. I wonder if there is other way to get those 500 modifications.

Regards,
Juan

Peter, when you mention that one can only create a backup file from Acronis, it can only be so on DVDs ?

Alain

EDIT: Nevermind... We know it is possible to backup an OS image on a drive. I guess you were answering to Anthony about his question about not having to pay for another already installed drive...

I'll have to correct this. It was a message to Gerard and while I assumed that he was referring to his own "other" PC which is a XXHighEnd PC just the same (but home built) I answered Yes (just assuming that Geard referred to his own (home built XXHighEnd PC).

But otherwise ...
Best answer will be No. This is because drivers won't match and it may not be easy to get it all consistently working. Windows will be able to bear it but it is just not the best thing to do. Remember, this is not an "Install" as such. It is just a live OS.

Peter

So i guess this HDD will be delivered with W7 also? And do you have these 500 settings on W7 aswel?

 :) :)

Gerard, Yes. Although for W7 it's something like 200 settings less.

Peter

From a PM from someone I see that this can be somewhat confusing and that it van be read as "illegal".
But nothing like that is the case. So it is just a legal install which comes with (is shipped with) a legal Windows License Key. One thing : This Key is for System Builders (like we do that) so to the letter it will not be 100% legal when such a disk is shipped to someone for whom we did not build the PC ...

Peter

I don't know if Peter has any interest in this kind of thing but I would love to see an upgrade that also includes jriver media center. Before anyone shouts heresy I would point out that such an upgraded HD would allow one to play audio AND video from the same PC(did Peter at one point say that he does something like this with his own PC?), and it also allows one to soundwise compare Peter's code optimized PC with that of a Windows 2012 Audiophile Optimizer PC.

Esau

Hi there Esau,

But do you mean : because people can't install JRM themselves ?

Regards,
Peter

Well, true enough, but I wasn't certain that the 500 software modifications made on a PC optimized for audio would allow one to run an (audio/) video purposed program like JRMC. Now I know!

Esau