Question. I assume adding items to the FS9 folder, say repaints, works the same way as having the FS9 folder uncompressed? Just place my repaints into the aircraft folder?

Pete, Yes, compressed folders work just like regular ones.Billy, Compressed folders are completely different from encrypted folders. If you encrypt a file and dont back up your encryption key you will lose access permanently to the file should you ever reinstall windows or delete your user account. If you are running Windows XP already, and have FS installed on a seperate partition from your OS, you can back up your FS files, then format just the partition you are planning to use for FS. If you are running Win98 and are planning to upgrade to XP, backup all of your important files and install XP from scratch. To do this just boot from the WindowsXP CD-ROM. You will be asked to put your Win98 CD in the drive for verification if you purchased the upgrade version of XP. You will be able to specify what partition (or even add/remove/resize partitions)to install XP on. After you have chosen the partition you will be asked what file system to format the drive with. Here you can choose to format it with NTFS. NTFS is faster, more functional, and more secure by far than FAT32.Just remember, before you start backup your important files!!!Carl MoorePS Billy, feel free to email me if you need more help.

When I change my partition to NTFS do I have to ask PMDG for a new key for their airplane? I suppose this action makes the registration invalid. :=(Hans

>This doesn't make sense to me at all. Windows will need to>decompress each file each time before using it. It adds>overhead and can only slow things down (if the amount of time>it takes to decompress is noticeable).>>But then, performance is in the eye of the beholder. If it>works for you, good on you.>>Don S.I disagree...it doesn't have to slow things down. With the compression turned on, more (compressed) data will reside in the disk cache, possibly resulting in more cache hits and less disk thrashing. The time required for a fast CPU to decompress data read from the cache is still much faster than reading uncompressed data from the HDD following a page fault.CheersBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Washington, D.C.

Hans, Serial key is NO LONGER REQUIRED ;). So no it will not....[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/196432/winglets_lg.jpg [h3] AMD XP 2200 |MUNCHKIN 512 DDR RAM |ECS[/b ][i] K7S5A MB[/i] |GF2 MX 32 MEG and still runs GOOD!|WIN XP PRO |MITSUBISHI DIAMOND PLUS 91 19"[/h3]

If you have a bootable Win XP Install CD - you don't even need a partition on your harddrive to install. The XP Install program will setup one for you and format it either phat32 or ntfs - your choice.Encrypting and compressing are 2 totally separate choices. Compressing is (almost) risk free - encrypting is very tricky and you really need to understand what it is before doing it.http://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

Do see the original thread...http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=143032&page=...for some technical information as to whythis actually might work, contrary to even my computer-geek logic. The explination makes sense though. If you have a ultra-fast hard drive setup, you'll probably not notice much difference. But in the end, reports are coming in with a strong favorable emphasis for this little tweak.Those who will benefit most will probably be higher-end processor people with above-average memory amounts and average to slow hard drive systems.I haven't tried it yet, but I'll be giving it a whirl soon.-Greg

I have tried this method last nite but it doesn't work, it only produces more stuttering to me. (2400XP+, 1GB DDR333, Ti4200 128MB AGP8X) There are a few facts that I could think of why some people got better disk performance:1. After compressing a file, a file will be relocated to another place on the partition. If the original file is fragmented, then the new location may be contigous.2. Since the data on the physical disk is less after compression, the time taken for reading the data will be less, and seek time will also be reduced. 3. Decompression virtually has no performance hit on a P4HT or a multi-processor system, since the decompression process can be run on a different system thread.4. it's just an illusion :(Writing to a compressed folders/files on the other hand will be hell slow. Well, since FS only reads files so who cares.I think defragmenting the partition is a better idea then compression.

Amusing collection of posts.You can actually measure this yourself by enabling performance monitor and tracking disk i/o during FS activities.The requirements for FS running at full bore with maximum settings will really shock you when you watch the monitor.This is directly aggravated by the actual flight speed of the aircraft, as a Cessna putting along at 80 knots requires less then a third of the disk access of a 737 moving at Mach .755.Video and CPU upgrades with the same old crappy bargain IDE hard disks results in stutters because you are literally exceeding the ability of the system getting data off the drives. The stutter is your machine saying that "I am ready to draw the next screen, but I have not gotten the data I require to do so yet."Compression reduces the amount of disk based i/o which on a high end system will improve performance.Compression on a system that is CPU/Video bound instead will have exactly the reverse effect. Understand exactly what you are doing before following some of these advice posts as they can cause you some serious grief for nothing.Ray

I just tried the compression theory. I compressed the FS9 folder and all it's sub folders. I flew into LAX which on my system Frame Rates would drop to 2-3 and the jerkiness was frustrsting. After compression it stayed around 10-12 with sliders at max. I'm not an FPS person, as long as I can fly without the jerkiness at max settings, I don't care if FPS = 1. Flew with ActiveSky and FSMeteo, FS Nav and FltMax and all the clouds I could muster. I'm impressed.Asus A7XN 2.0Cossair Twin X Matched 1Gig set at dual channelAMD 2500 Barton Overcloked to 2800MSI ti 4400 vid card Overclocked2 WD 100mb drives raid 0 running FS9 and nothing elseBill M

Exactly my point Bill ;)You are not CPU bound, you are disk bound ... decreasing disk access improves your performance because your drives were killing you.People need to look at the big picture, not just the video cards :-lolRay

After reading the above post about defraging, I do agree that it do make a big difference. But I run diskeeper and it's set at auto or "set it and forget it" so defrag isn't my problem. It keeps FS9 in check as far as defrags goes. There are times when I forget defrag is running and installed on my machine. But back to the new thory, I only problem I've incured so far was the PMDG 737 using VC mode. The VC panel would show up with missing gauges or textures. I fixed the problem by going directly to the PMDG AC folder highlighting it and un compressing it. The panel came back and i'm still flying without the jerkiness at max settings.

I seemed to have picked up 3-5 fps by compressing the FS2002 folder. And recovered 1.6 gb of disk space. This was a really good tip, at least for me.WinXP home SP1, FS2002, Dell Dimension 8200, 2.0 GHz P-4 (soon to be 2.6 GHz P-4), 1 gb RDRAM, Radeon Pro 128 mb.CheersBill

Okay I'm a novice so be gentle....I am converting my HD's on my system from FAT32 to NTFS and have successfully converted my main drive © . However, when I try and convert my second slaved HD (D) it asks me for the volume label or drive name. I never named it, just left it blank. Now, I right clicked, went to properties and found and wrote down what I "thought" were the drive names (WDA 308AAC et al), but when I enter those values it says it's an invalid volume label name. Any ideas on how I can determine what the volume label on my D: drive is? Thanks in advance.

Ah simple, many ways. The easy way is to go to a DOS PROMPT and type the drive letter, mine is D so d: and then hit ENTER then type dir and hit enter. The information with be diplayed at the top....[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/196432/winglets_lg.jpg [h3] AMD XP 2200 |MUNCHKIN 512 DDR RAM |ECS[/b ][i] K7S5A MB[/i] |GF2 MX 32 MEG and still runs GOOD!|WIN XP PRO |MITSUBISHI DIAMOND PLUS 91 19"[/h3]