My Ol' Faithful XP OtsBox finally died on the weekend. Fortunately, it wasn't at a gig, just playing for our entertainment in my music studio. Suddenly, Ots burped, recovered, then gagged completely. By the time I got to the PC, it had attempted to re-boot, but then crashed with "missing c:\windows\system32\config\system". I attempted some recovery options, and managed to get it back up again, but, alas, it was its final death throes. Apparently the system drive developed some bad spots, and they just got worse to the point there wasn't a lot of Windows left.
It says a lot for having a separate drive for the OS, as I was able to replace the hard drive, install a spare copy of Win 7 Pro I had lying around, and was back up and running a few hours later, albeit with a temporary Ots license. I filled out the online "Error 220" form to request a new license, and I'm happy to report that there was a confirmation email waiting this Monday morning.
One of my concerns was that my M-Audio Audiophile 192 card is quite old, and may not have had more recent drivers, but a quick trip to their website yielded drivers, not only for Win 7, but also for Win 8!
I have a few final tweaks to make to some batch files, but we played continuous music for four or five hours on Sunday and all worked perfectly. Go Ots!
I am sure your XP Ots Box has served you well Milky, Its good you have it sorted now.
Yes thumbs up to Ots for being on top of emergencies. More than once I have had a similar issue and they will get you back up and running immediately!
Well Done Dr. M! You handled, as always.