My situation is this: I have a laptop, and the internal HD is tiny (250GB). I partitioned this HD into two halves, one for Mac OS X, and one for Windows, with the consequence that both of the halves are now filled to the top. It's the Windows partition that I'm going to clean up first, because Windows seems to have mroe problems operating on a little HD space than Mac OS X. Anyway, FS9 is on my internal HD, and now I want put everything I've got over to the external HD, but I'll start from scratch so the external HD doesn't inherit all the crap of the old FS9 installation. So, therefor, I will be installing FS9 on the external HD. Now I'm wondering, can this be done safely, or do I have to do a grand back-up procedure of the files I want to keep from my old FS9 installation? Plus, since the external HD will be 1TB, I will also put FSX on it, just for the heck of it. in what order should I install the sims? First FSX and then FS9, or vice versa?In the end, I want all games on the external HD and only the most necessary/important files on my internal HD, for reasons of system stability, HD space and function.Before people start saying I shouldn't game using an external HD, here are some of the specifics: LaCie 1TB, 7200RPM with a Firewire 800 connection (Or eSATA if I wish, but my laptop doesn't have such a connection available). In other words, very fast and completely reliable. I have already been playing Oblivion using a Firewire 400 connection, which works more than fine.Any answers and suggestion are welcome!Thanks in advance.

I ran FS2004 on an external HD for several years. It worked perfect. My suggestion would be to Install it fresh on the external HD, and copy all the add on that you have to that drive. The other alternative would be to use something like Norton Ghost or Acronis to move stuff around, but these utilities are used for Disk imaging, and are better suited for making exact copies bit by bit of one drive and installing it on another drive. Many of the addon files for FS9 do not affect the registry, but some do. You would want to reinstall the addons that do make registry entry. Last but not least you would want the registry repair tool. FS_Registry_Repair.exe available for free and Flight 1.com to make sure the FS related registry entries are able to find the new location. After doing this it might help to get a good registry repair and cleaning tool like registry mechanic to clean up registry enties left behind.I don't know for sure about putting FSX and FS2004 on the same drive, but I have heard horror stories about it. FSX messes with the registry and fowls up FS9. If you browse around the forums here and at FlightSim.com, you should be able to find plenty of information about that. I use seperate drives for each, which partitioning the external drive would accomplish the same thing. It is always good policy to back up everything in case something goes awry.With such a large External Drive, you could put the entire contents of the old drive on to the new drive, and not even make a dent in space. The one thing you want to be careful with is that all your FS USer files remain on the boot drive for windows. Where they are normally installed. C:\Documents and Settings\your username\application data\microsoft\FS9 or FSX which ever is pertinate. This is where the basic cfg files and other files needed to start FS are stored. Then you will have in the My Documents the flight sim files that are flight plans and saved flights that are stored there.This is the way I initially set up my system, with no problems whatsoever. After installing a much larger Pair of drives for my internal box, I moved the FS's to the new drives without a hitch.Others may have better ideas, but this worked for me.John

My situation is this: I have a laptop, and the internal HD is tiny (250GB). I partitioned this HD into two halves, one for Mac OS X, and one for Windows, with the consequence that both of the halves are now filled to the top. It's the Windows partition that I'm going to clean up first, because Windows seems to have mroe problems operating on a little HD space than Mac OS X. Anyway, FS9 is on my internal HD, and now I want put everything I've got over to the external HD, but I'll start from scratch so the external HD doesn't inherit all the crap of the old FS9 installation. So, therefor, I will be installing FS9 on the external HD. Now I'm wondering, can this be done safely, or do I have to do a grand back-up procedure of the files I want to keep from my old FS9 installation? Plus, since the external HD will be 1TB, I will also put FSX on it, just for the heck of it. in what order should I install the sims? First FSX and then FS9, or vice versa?In the end, I want all games on the external HD and only the most necessary/important files on my internal HD, for reasons of system stability, HD space and function.Before people start saying I shouldn't game using an external HD, here are some of the specifics: LaCie 1TB, 7200RPM with a Firewire 800 connection (Or eSATA if I wish, but my laptop doesn't have such a connection available). In other words, very fast and completely reliable. I have already been playing Oblivion using a Firewire 400 connection, which works more than fine.Any answers and suggestion are welcome!Thanks in advance.

I'm also using fs2004 on an external hardrive and so far had no issues with it. I had to backup my addons first and do a clean install on the e/drive. However i would advise using an esata connector instead of a firewire to run fs2004 as esata allows up to 3gbits/sec data transfer rate (which is much faster than usb and firewire) if your h/drive supports it.

Thanks for the reply. However, as I said, my computer does not have an eSATA connector, and since I'm not quite sure if the speed difference will *really* make such a difference at the point when you go from FW800 to eSATA that it's worth investing in an eSATA connector for my computer (that will have to be connected by a FW800 port or something anyway, since, you know it *is* a laptop), I'll be using the Fireware 800 port.However, can anybody enlighten me still on the ubject FS9/FSX compatibility? I mean, is there any problem with installing both them of them to a single HD? I can remember you got problems when removing FSX, that FS9 may stop working, but is it the other way around a problem too?Yeah, FSX... I'm not sure why I bother. But fact is, there are addons out there that work with FSX, and not with FS9, that I badly want, like Aerosoft's twin otter for example.

I have my FS2004 backed up on a external hard drive (I did it this way because the CD drive I have now can not burn disks). It took me a very long time to copy everything I had in FS2004 to the external drive. In a few months (probably around Oct or Nov) I will be getting a new computer (built by a friend) and when I do instead of copying FS2004 back on to the new computer I think I will just leave FS2004 on the external drive and use it from there.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had FS9 installed on an external HD. I failed to mention that the drive was a USB connection to the computer. There were no problems, and I did not see a difference in frame rates compared to now. It is now installed in an internal drive bay. I see no difference.John

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had FS9 installed on an external HD. I failed to mention that the drive was a USB connection to the computer. There were no problems, and I did not see a difference in frame rates compared to now. It is now installed in an internal drive bay. I see no difference.John

Agh, I just noticed your earlier post! For some reason, I scrolled right over it and din't notice it at all. I have read it now, and it proved very helpful. However, I'd like to ask a question about the first paragraph of your post. You talk there about fixing registry entries. I was wondering, if I do a clean install of FS9 and all the payware/freeware addons that I will want on there, fixin existing registry entries will not be necessary would it? I can imagine that it would be necessary if I were to wipe Windows and do a fresh install of that, because FS9 and related addons will not even appear in the registry. Will Flight1's tool be of use for that, or will I have to do a clean install of FS9 and/or FSX *again* when I do a fresh reinstall of Windows?Concerning FS9/FSX: Well, I went out and bought the gold edition of FSX, so there is no way back. For as far as I remember, problems with FSX only occured once you removed FSX and it was on the same drive/partition as FS9. However, I think I'll be partitioning the 1TB drive into 4 smaller pieces: 2, each of 100GB, solely for FS9 and FSX, so they have a prtition each. Then, a bigger partition of 400GB for backup purposes, and a final partition of 400GB for random junk. Sound good, or does anybody have a better method. I'm all ears!

I think I would install FSX first, and not to "program files" if your using Vista. I have read that can cause all sorts of "permission" problems.I believe I have heard that FSX will toast FS9 registry entries so installing FSX first might be better.If someone else knows better please enlighten us.Joe

I think I would install FSX first, and not to "program files" if your using Vista. I have read that can cause all sorts of "permission" problems.I believe I have heard that FSX will toast FS9 registry entries so installing FSX first might be better.If someone else knows better please enlighten us.Joe

personally i had a few probs running some payware fs9 aircrafts after uninstalling fsx which was on the same partition as fs9. those aircrafts was equipped with realityxp gauges and kept on crashing to desktop when loaded. i had to uninstall everything, format the h/drive and do a fresh install. that was the first and last time i ran fsx.

Thanks for the reply. However, as I said, my computer does not have an eSATA connector, and since I'm not quite sure if the speed difference will *really* make such a difference at the point when you go from FW800 to eSATA that it's worth investing in an eSATA connector for my computer (that will have to be connected by a FW800 port or something anyway, since, you know it *is* a laptop), I'll be using the Fireware 800 port.

if it is a laptop, then u can get yourself a esata pci card that slot on the side and that should allow u to connect an esata h/drive to the laptop.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had FS9 installed on an external HD. I failed to mention that the drive was a USB connection to the computer. There were no problems, and I did not see a difference in frame rates compared to now. It is now installed in an internal drive bay. I see no difference.John

hi, my experience with a usb h/drive with fs9 + addons running on it, was that my fps were down to 8fps. this was like watching a slideshow. this was a 3.5'' 7200rpm external hdrive usb2.0. then i changed to an esata external 2.5'' h/drive and now my fps are running between 30-35.how did u get your to work on a usb drive without a decrease in fps??? please let us know so that others can benefit.thnxs.laptop specs: amd turion x2 dual core 2.0ghz, ati mobility radeon hd3650 512mb dedicated, 4gb ram, 16''hd screen.

My original hard drive is now an external. My FS9 and a previous install of FSX are both on this but there are problems associated with registry of certain addons. The FS9 has extremely slow menus, but good frame rates. What I mean by slow menus is that when I start the program it takes a long time to get to selecting a plane of choice and even longer going to bring up the time and date options. When I attempt to load the most current FSUIPC FS9 never finishes loading. Other than that running on an external drive should be fine from my experience.

I'll reply to all of you at once in this post:N60JBravo: I thought the problems were only with removing FSX from a hard drive, but I'll search the forums again, to see if I can find anything. If it's true what you are saying, that'd be a great pity... Although, I have vacation now, and I'm not intending to install any addons before both FSX and FS9 are runnign well on their respective partitions. I have the time to experiment. But, what you say sounds write and I might eventually just install FSX first, to be on the safe side.mwjb1984: What do you mean "on the side"? Do you mean, in the side of the laptop, like in the machine, or do you mean on the side, like a lose port, like a USB hub? Because, as I said, my laptop can not be changed. it simply can't. You can't put any ports in it, there simply is no room and no possiblity for that. If you mean "on the side" as in "outside, next to the laptop", then I just don't se the point of it. The eSATA thing will have to be connected to the computer *some* way, and that way will always be slower than the eSATA connection itself...flyerkg: Slowness of menus can be very well down to the installed amount of planes. My FS9 can be slow like hell because of the huge amount of both flyable and AI planes installed. Time and date and location menus, on the other hand, should be fast as always. Then again, if you use USB and have a slow (slower than the internal) HD, the program micht become very slow. However, I ordered something that exceeds the specs of my internal HD, and so I don't expect more slowness than on my HD.I should receive the HD tomorrow or friday. When it has arrived, the meddling can begin! First though, I'll uninstall the addons that will cry out loud if I don't, before installing them into FS9. And my Ariane 737-700? I have no idea what to do with that now. They aren't very wiling to give you more keys than really necessary, and so...BIG QUESTION for you guys:Say, I install FS9, FSX, addons, whatnot, all onto my external HD. Then, the 22nd of october, Windows 7 will come along, and I will be one of the first to buy it and install it. When I install it, I will wipe my existing installation of Windows Vista, and start from scrath wih Windows 7. At that point, can I be sure that my installed aircraft, like the Ariane 737-700, will work without crying? This is basically the difference for me if I should install a certain addon or not... Otherwise I simply ait installing those addons that may break and tear down FS.

You talk there about fixing registry entries. I was wondering, if I do a clean install of FS9 and all the payware/freeware addons that I will want on there, fixin existing registry entries will not be necessary would it? If you are performing a clean install, I would back up all your FS addon files, Uninstall your current FS from its current location, Clean up the registry, and then perform a clean install to the new drive. You then can either reinstall or copy your addons back to their proper positions. Be careful when you do this, as some will add additional folders, so that you get your intended folder within a folder with the same name. Such as E:\FS9\Addon Scenery\LAX\LAXand so on. Some addons will stumble on this scenario. Before moving note the file and folder structure, so that when it is in it's new place, it reads the same.Flight 1's repair tool is good for repairing registry entries that go awry during the move process. If you have a lot of addons, I would recommend that you use the tool to reassociate all the addons to the new location of your FS.I can imagine that it would be necessary if I were to wipe Windows and do a fresh install of that, because FS9 and related addons will not even appear in the registry. Will Flight1's tool be of use for that, or will I have to do a clean install of FS9 and/or FSX *again* when I do a fresh reinstall of Windows?FS1 registry repair tool would be good for reassociating the FS to the Window registry, But bear in mind, if you are doing a complete reinstall of Windows,if you don't have the Data files backed up, you will lose everything on the C: drive, so you would still need to reinstall everything else you had on the drive. The registry repair tool can be of use if you already have what you need installed on the new drive before reinstalling windows.Concerning FS9/FSX: Well, I went out and bought the gold edition of FSX, so there is no way back. For as far as I remember, problems with FSX only occured once you removed FSX and it was on the same drive/partition as FS9. However, I think I'll be partitioning the 1TB drive into 4 smaller pieces: 2, each of 100GB, solely for FS9 and FSX, so they have a prtition each. Then, a bigger partition of 400GB for backup purposes, and a final partition of 400GB for random junk. Sound good, or does anybody have a better method. I'm all ears!I have installed and uninstalled FSX several times, mainly because I still am not too sure I really appreciate it. When installing it, I always use a drive other than what FS9 is on. By doing this you create a seperate file structure on each drive. Note: When I refer to a drive, it can be a partition as well.To date, I have never experienced a problem with either FS or its associated registry enties by adhering to these practices. I have read time and time again that installing both on the same drive or partition causes all sorts of problems, so I just never tried it. Err on the side of Caution.Hope this helps, as it is my humble opinion, and I am sure many others may or may not agree.John

mwjb1984: What do you mean "on the side"? Do you mean, in the side of the laptop, like in the machine, or do you mean on the side, like a lose port, like a USB hub? Because, as I said, my laptop can not be changed. it simply can't. You can't put any ports in it, there simply is no room and no possiblity for that. If you mean "on the side" as in "outside, next to the laptop", then I just don't se the point of it. The eSATA thing will have to be connected to the computer *some* way, and that way will always be slower than the eSATA connection itself...

Hi, well what i meant by 'the side', is that every laptop should have a pci slot built in the side of the laptop itself (it is not detached). It is either on the right or left side depending on your model. when u press on that slot, it opens up a tray and there, u have a free slot to fit anything e.g usb card ports, wireless card (if it's not already built in) or esata card ports, etc...The best advice i can give is to check your laptop manual or manufacturers website for the location of that pci slot.PS: Sorry for my english, i'm french.

ironhorsmn: Okay, thanks for the comments. You have more than helped me with this information!mwjb1984: I have an expresscard slot, for all I know, not a PCI card slot. Remember, I'm on a Macbook Pro, not a "normal" PC.EDIT: Ahng on, after some searching, it appears I can put an eSATA controller in that expresscard thingy... mwjb1984, could you be so kind as to point me in the right direction of good, and not to expensive eSATA controllers that could fit into an expresscar/34 slot? Thanks in advance!