Move FSX-SE to another HDD

[Hi-ME 5¢]

So i have a seperate HDD specifically for flight sim (FS9 and FSX-O). Since i have installed FSX-SE and all of my addons i am running out of space on my Games HDD (Mostly steam games) i have uninstalled FSX-O when i bought the steam version. I would like to know if i will be able to move my FSX-SE install to my flight sim HDD without any problems from addons ect.. I understand i will probably have to redo the Scenery.cfg but thats fine. Thanks.

[mikeytwc]

I have my steam fsx:se in E:/steamgames and it runs just fine, mind you its a Q6600 quad core(quite old) with win vista, uac disabled, firewall and av are active, connect just fine, installed a dodosim chopper and dinos planes(t-45,f-14,f-35 and S-3 viking) all are working just fine, no issues at all, no crashes like others are reporting, silky smooth with ALL sliders at MAX
Yes there are some a/c that are not yet able to install, as the authors of those planes havent updated their files/installers...that is to be expected
Overall I am MOST happy about the outcome of dovetail opening fsx to these old eyes and i am finally seeing what i should have seen had microsoft not closed aces studio in their infinite wisdom...(another reason to hate microsoft, short sightedness)
well, off the soapbox until i need to step up again....
(oh if anyone has a solution for simconnect or aicarriers, please start a discussion about it)

[P1cwh0r3]

I'm going to try to do this myself. I'll try it out and let you know the results.

[P1cwh0r3]

Copy the Steam\steamapps\common\fsx folder to your SSD.

Delete/rename the old one from the steam folders

Open up a cmd window with Administrator access (If you don't it won't allow you to link folders)
In the command window type:

MKLINK /D Z:\Steam\steamapps\common\fsx s:\fsx

Replace Z:\ with where your steam folder is currently. You MUST keep the "Steam\steamapps\common\fsx"

S:\fsx is where you copied the Folder to on your SSD.

You essentially make a shortcut to the SSD

No file modifications needed.

[FTL_FAM]

I would just uninstall all your addons before you move your FSX directory to your new drive.

It may seem like a hassle, but a lot of addons rely on specific registry entries that reference the path to your FSX -- no matter what version -- But some things just don't work right on SE, so it's best to minimize compatibility problems by "starting over" as it were.

The good thing is you can just tell Steam where to "download" a.k.a. verify your new FSX install once you hit play. It will think it was deleted, so you have to tell it where it is on your new drive. That's one thing Steam has over Uplay and what everybody wants Ubisoft to implement; backups and game verification so we don't have to download GBs again if we simply moved the install.

[Vyxenne]

Firstly, FSX is an older-tech game. Although Dovetail Games has updated a few things, they can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear: FSX is still just old tech and will not run any better, or faster, or with fewer stutters, or run more HD scenery, from an SSD than it will from a regular HDD. (Google this if you do not believe me). The only benefit you will see from moving it from a regular HDD to an SSD is decreased loading times. That's it.

So the truth is, there's really not much point in moving FSX to an SSD because other than when you launch the sim, you won't see any difference. I recently moved my highly-modded FSX-SE from my SSD to a regular HDD to make room to install GTA-V, which WILL run much better from my SSD. As stated above, FSX-SE runs the same, at the same frame rates and with the same HD scenery addons. It just loads noticeably slower now. No big deal at all.

Secondly, none of the statements in the post above this one are valid if you simply move your entire FSX installation and then make a link from the old location to the new one as P1cwh0r3 said above.

P1cwh0r3 has it exactly right. There is even a downloadable software utility called Junction Link Magic to create new links and/or find existing ones using a GUI instead of DOS commands. There is no need to uninstall any part of FSX-SE, and in fact, doing so will probably brick your sim. The only difference between what Pc1wh0r3 said and using this utility is that you do NOT want to delete or rename your old, empty FSX folder as you would when using the MKLINK command in a DOS Command window. Just make sure it's completely empty.

How to move FSX-SE using Junction Link Magic without the computer knowing you moved it:
1. Copy your entire Steam\Steamapps\common\FSX folder to your new drive. In my case I copied it to a new folder named E:\Games\FSX. It is 35GB huge and took 17 minutes.
2. Verify that all files and subfolders made it to the destination using right-click>>Properties on both the old folder and the new one. Compare file counts and total byte sizes. Check this twice!
3.Delete the entire contents of your old Steam\Steamapps\common\FSX folder, leaving the empty folder there. Repeat: you must leave the old, empty FSX folder there!
4. Launch Junction Link Magic and hit the [ Create ] button.
5. Navigate to your empty Steam\Steamapps\common\FSX folder and select it in the left pane.
6. Navigate to your new, full FSX folder and select it in the right pane.
7. Click the new [ Create ] button and say OK to the warning about unintended consequences.

That's it. As far as your computer, your Registry, Steam and FSX "know," your FSX installation together with all its scenery and addons are right where they always were in ..\Steam\Steamapps\common\FSX. The only difference is that you now have 35GB (in my case) more space on your old drive and your FSX installation will load faster because it's actually on an SSD now. However, mark my words: FSX won't run any better or faster once it's through loading.

[udidwht]

Originally posted by mikeytwc:

I have my steam fsx:se in E:/steamgames and it runs just fine, mind you its a Q6600 quad core(quite old) with win vista, uac disabled, firewall and av are active, connect just fine, installed a dodosim chopper and dinos planes(t-45,f-14,f-35 and S-3 viking) all are working just fine, no issues at all, no crashes like others are reporting, silky smooth with ALL sliders at MAX
Yes there are some a/c that are not yet able to install, as the authors of those planes havent updated their files/installers...that is to be expected
Overall I am MOST happy about the outcome of dovetail opening fsx to these old eyes and i am finally seeing what i should have seen had microsoft not closed aces studio in their infinite wisdom...(another reason to hate microsoft, short sightedness)
well, off the soapbox until i need to step up again....
(oh if anyone has a solution for simconnect or aicarriers, please start a discussion about it)

Google FSX AiCarriers non java version...hell here you go...

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=11293.0

[admin]

Hmm, this seems rather disheartening. I've just ordered an SSD for the same reason - along with 32GB of ram (only 8GB on board at present).

Have I 'wasted' my money on the drive, or have things changed in the last couple of years?

[SteveFSX/P3D]

Originally posted by admin:

Hmm, this seems rather disheartening. I've just ordered an SSD for the same reason - along with 32GB of ram (only 8GB on board at present).

Have I 'wasted' my money on the drive, or have things changed in the last couple of years?

It's said FSX will not perform any better with an SSD - In my situation using loads of Orbx scenery I have not found that to be entirely true. For some reason my FSX runs better from an SSD. My scenery performs better with less ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and it appears to help with blurries and so on. I usually use weather from ASN, and Rex textures and so on - somewhere in my system the SSD is helping with something whilst running.

I just cloned everything on my old HD, including windows, to a 760gb SSD, using a cloning kit. When this was done I just swapped HDs over, and everything was there just like before - except now the PC worked as fast as a MacBook.

It takes around 15 secs from to start to desktop - and FSX loads much quicker to the main menu. However flight loading times are just slightly quicker than the old HD. That was the only dissapointment, but obviously I have cut the overall startup by the speed of startup, and loading to the FSX menu.

To be honest it would be hard to use a normal HD because of the speed improvement in running the computer in general.

[Vyxenne]

I have experienced similar results with FSX-SE. I overclocked my i5 3570K to 4.4GHz (with one click using my ROM-BIOS OC utility) and saw improvement in FSX load times and performance, then I moved it to an SSD and saw more improvements. I run a lot of addons including scenery, aircraft, airports and AI traffic and now have zero stutters, zero blank textures still trying to load as I fly into new areas, etc. It's smooth as silk, which is pretty amazing considering how old it is despite Dove's tweaking.

[admin]

Sorry, Steve Mak and Vyxenne, Christmas got in the way.

Well, thanks for your responses - they sound far more positive that others that I have read (here and elsewhere). I have the SSD installed (it's only a 256GB unit; imagine saying that a couple of decades ago!) I decided that going to 32GB of memory was wasteful, so added 16GB to make 24GB in total. Surely that will be enough.

All I now need is the intestinal fortitude to undertake the task of shifting FSX:MS and FSX:SE to the new drive. To be honest I'm not all that enamoured at having to re-install either/both programs, plus all the scenery and other add-ons. The redirection system doesn't sit well with me either as, surely, it must add extra cycles to each instruction as it is executed? Of course I am open to correction on that matter.

I shall cogitate and research further before I take the bit between my teeth.

Thanks again for your encouraging remarks although yours, Vyxenne, seem to contradict your earlier comments on this thread.

John

[Vyxenne]

I used Junction Links, if that's what you mean by "the redirection system." I simply backed up my FSX folder, then copy-pasted my entire Steam\Steamapps\common\FSX folder from HDD to SSD, then deleted the contents of my old FSX folder on the HDD and used Junction Magic to convert that empty folder to a Junction Link and point it to the new FSX folder on the SSD. So anything looking for FSX still "finds" it where the registry says it is, but all of its read/writes happen at SSD speeds, eliminating that bottleneck. I don't think there is much, if any, additional runtime overhead involved in using a Junction Link- I don't think the machine reads the HDD first and THEN reads to actual data via the link to the SSD, think creating the junction link just "spoofs" the drive tables- but I'm not sure on that and could be wrong. All I know for sure is it's a lot faster using a Junction Link on a HDD pointing to data that is on an SSD than it was when the data was actually on the HDD.

I also have Windows 7x64 on a 64GB SSD system drive and use Junction links extensively to move stuff out of ..\Program Files and ..\Program Files(x86) and on to HDDs where there is room for them because some installers don't give you a choice where to install stuff, and with only 64GB available I can't let everything stay where the installers put it.

Also, I'm only running 8GB of RAM and get great FSX (and Skyrim, Skyrim SE, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, GTA5, The Secret World and Guiild Wars 2) performance and framerates with only a GTX970. I could see going to 16GB, and might do that in 2017, but I think anything over 16GB of RAM is overkill unless you're a professional video renderer or something RAM-hogging like that. Now that our OS's are 64-bit systems, by the time we get games and non-video-pro apps that come close to benefitting from more than 16GB of RAM, the entire computer will have long since become obsolete, rendering all that extra RAM moot. You might try doing some timings on various apps including FSX with 16GB and with 24GB installed to see if it makes any difference. I'm betting it won't make one microsecond of difference. Just my two cents on that issue.

[admin]

I'm very late getting back, sorry Vyxenne.

Thanks for the run down on your system and your machinations with 'the beast', it's interesting.

I've left FSX and FSX:SE where they were. I have installed a 256GB SSD which works well, although I'm only using that at the moment for X-Plane 11 beta. The jury's still out on that until all the bugs are sorted.

Buying a 4GB video card has made a great difference to the FSX programmes, although I still can't crank them up to maximum on all settings. I looked hard and long at the 8GB cards available and also at my budget; the budget won. Oh yes, I only built up the RAM to 24GB.

Given your experiences with the redirection method of shifting FSX I will have a second look and, probably, experiment with it; after all, if I back it all up externally, I can always put it back the way it was.

Thanks again for your thoughts and information.

Cheers,
John

[b-smith]

I have just installed a new clean drive for games using info on one of the fsx sites, I tranferred my steam files to this drive and using Junction link magic and as far as I can tell it seems to work.
I did as instructed and deleted the contents of my original Steal folder but left the empty steam folder and then used Link magic. My question is that folder has now been filled with the same folders i deleted. is this because Steam updates each time I start . Should I have to change steam path now to G drive,.Its a bit pointless moving to additional drive I updates are put back into Steam original drive.

[Erazer]

My old Windows 7 computer now has Samsung EVO SSDs [560 MB/s] and runs much better than before on old 2TB Seagate 5,200 rev/min HDDs, one of which has gone kaput.

This new Windows 10 computer has a 512GB Intel M.2 760p SSD which is more than twice the speed of the two new Samsung SSDs

I still have MS FSX Acceleration running on the Windows 7 machine, but it's not as good as the Steam FSX installed on this one.

Video memory is 8GB from an Nvidia 1070 with 16GB on board RAM [No more struggling with an old AMD Card with a puny 2GB video mem.]

The Intel Core i7 Coffee Lake 6 core 12 thread CPU has Turbo-Boost which will take it up to 4.6GHz without over-clocking anything. :-)

You can check the boost easily using CPUID

[Erazer]

Originally posted by mikeytwc:

Overall I am MOST pleased about the outcome of Dovetail opening FSX to these old eyes and I am finally seeing what I should have seen had Microsoft not closed Aces studio.

If anyone has a solution for simconnect or AIcarriers2, please start a discussion about it.

AICarriers using Java stopped years ago. This brilliant free add-on will only work properly when using the .NET 4.7 framework.

Avoid all auto installers!

Just do a much more satisfying manual install, as it is very easy to do.

I have AICarriers2 on both of my computers Win 7 and Win 10

Apart from using F-18 Hornets I have just downloaded Dino Cattaneo's Boeing T-45B trainer.

Just had to modify the aircraft.cfg file to remove unnecessary 'cinematic' views.

My prize aircraft is the Anglo-French BAe Concorde from Fly Away Simulation. Again a MANUAL installation.

But again the aircraft.cfg file was a total mess.

Sorted out the right hand view which was completely wrong and reduced and moved the payload as it was overloaded for take off and the C of G was too far aft.

The main Aircraft folder got re-named to FAS Concorde in the process.

Mach 5.04 plus at 50,000 Ft !!!

But it won't exit properly as yet and you'll have to re-start FSX after closing the Concorde flight.