I'm getting an external HD. Then I'm going to do a fresh install FS9 (oh my!) on my main HD. Once I have all my basic add-ons installed, GE + UT + FE + FSG Mesh + favorite payware planes & scenery, all nice and clean and stable, I want to copy the entire thing over to the external HD so if/when I screw up FS9 installing new stuff, I can delete the main FS9 and copy over the "template" FS9 off my external HD.Besides the main FS9 folder and the Documents and Setting/FS9 folder the .cfg file is in, are there any others that have to be copied as well?Thanks.

This is easy!I just did this on my new external.Get an external that is large enough to hold your entire contents of your internal drive.Then...use XP's back up utility to make a full backup of C: drive. That is it!If you ever need to bring something back, you just run the XP back up utility again and then pick from a menu what you want reinstalled. XP also captures the system state so everything will come across.Couldn't be easier!There are too may flight simulation sites now crumbling away overnight not to back up your hard drive. I had an electricity-shutdown-start cycle happen three times in 5 seconds a month ago and lost my entire hard drive.Tip: turn off the auto-restart of XP after a power failure...or this could happen to you too! Make XP so that it stays off after a power interruption.This prompted me to be on the look out for a high-volume external. I backed up over 50 GB's of data via XP's internal back-up utility in 1 hour and 58 minutes via a USB 2.0 port.Cheers!Mitch R.

Hi,The issue you can encounter with this approach are the registry settings.If an excisting add-on (that has been backed up) requires registry settings, they are not restored.

As Mitch mentioned ....back up the whole thing.I have two HD's for a total capacity of 160 gb. With the relatively little difference in cost I set up a "one button" external back up HD with a capacity of 200 gb. So once a week, or sometimes more often, I just press the button and everything in my computer is backed up. Now I can find any file/folder on the external to replace anything that I might ( and do) screw up.Gary

Egbert,If you back up your entire hard drive, everything that was there including the registry is saved (computer state) and there are no worries. You can bring back the whole thing, C: drive and again be a happy camper.I never did a complete back-up in the past,because I uh..er...'thought that this (complete hard drive failure)...er...would never happen to ME!'Yeah..right!It only takes once for you to receive the 'wake-up' call.I just smile now at my My Book Essential 500 GB external. Everything is there...happily stored!!!!!:)Mitch'er

Gotcha. Thanks all.Fortunately my HD is only about 50GB full (out of 75), so making a backup shouldn't be that long.But if I did want to switch only FS9, where are the registry settings for my payware?