OK..I have been using Acronis true image 2009 (disk imager) for a while now and I simply love it.I have now used it twice to restore my C: Primary drive with OS and all my installs as well as my FSX drive and addons.I was hit by a nasty virus recently that messed up my boot sector and I was able to restore it as good as like it never happened in 20 minutes flat. The best $40 I have ever spent!:)MannyPS I back up my phtoscenery folders separately by simply doing a windows copy onto a USB drive. this way the image file I bacup using Acronis is reasonable size and I can do multiple versions...so I can go back atleast three times in the past. Thats just my personal backup strategy.

OK..I have been using Acronis true image 2009 (disk imager) for a while now and I simply love it.I have now used it twice to restore my C: Primary drive with OS and all my installs as well as my FSX drive and addons.I was hit by a nasty virus recently that messed up my boot sector and I was able to restore it as good as like it never happened in 20 minutes flat. The best $40 I have ever spent!:)MannyPS I back up my phtoscenery folders separately by simply doing a windows copy onto a USB drive. this way the image file I bacup using Acronis is reasonable size and I can do multiple versions...so I can go back atleast three times in the past. Thats just my personal backup strategy.

I use another method which may not be as thorough as Acronis. I use a 1TB external powered HDD(F drive) and install FSX and all addons onto it. I created a file called "Scenery" to where I d/l the addons and then where necessary add to the FSX Scenery library. The only addons I notice insisting on registering them selves within C drive are UT2, FS Discover. All my FTX,GEX,REX,loads of Photoscenery (200 gig !) work fine from the external HDD.When I have had 2 internal drives I have had persistent problems mainly with Boot failures and/or corrupt files, freezing etc. Ihave had to install Vista about 7 times over the last 2 years. Anyway now I only have Vista & some Utility programmes on C drive so when I last had to reinstall Vista I just used the Flight1 Registry tool and was up and flying again. I did have to reinstall UT2 and FSDiscover but over all really quick. IF I should ever have to reinstall FSX, all my addons are there. The other advantage is that defragging my F drive which over 260gig takes about 5 minutes and I have zero defragged files versus C drive with Vista on it is fragmented all over the place after a days use.Just another idea for some to ponder.

Is your external powed HD an e-SATA drive? how is the disk access? no noticeable difference from internal HD? Manny

Is your external powed HD an e-SATA drive? how is the disk access? no noticeable difference from internal HD? Manny

Hi Manny... I cannot answer regarding e-Sata as I dont know but it is a Seagate FreeAgent 1TB and may well have more of that kind of detail on their site. I just have it plugged in via USB all the time, and on PC Boot/start-up it recognises it as a second HD and off we go.It has a very efficient syncronisation feature and I cannot tell any difference from it being external to it being an internal HD.Having had 2 internal HDs previously I can honestly say I notice no difference in it's speed of operation in all aspects of supplying data, file transfer speed etc. It has been my saviour since PC crashes etc that were the bain of my FSX life frequently. It has been like an instant reinstall of all my FSX by sticking the USB connector into the PC and it is all there ready to go again.Please note that I install into Scenery in F drive and all the programmes then install there and also identifies the path to FSX (also in Fdrive) so C drive is kept out of it. Any way I look at as like having a complete FSX and all addons in a secure independent "box" basically immune from OS problems.