I recently had a computer problem that blocked me from going on-line. After what Best Buy calls a "quick fix" (and it was) internet access was restored. However...The first time I started FS9 I recieved a startup notice that over 50 scenery files where not recognized. 50 plus!Further examination revealed that some add-on airport scenery folders had 'lost' their contents! (scenery/texture).Also...all afcads...modified AND share-ware (UK2000/Aerosoft/Blueprint/etc) had defaulted to MS FS9! Example: I had turned back the clock at Travis AFB to include parking for a/c from the 50's as well as modern using the afcad created in 2008 byJim Cook. That one defaulted as well, empying the tarmac. I re-installed his afcad...and that one defaulted as well on start up. This may be only the beginning. I have not tried to deal with aircraft and at this point I feel like dumping the entire hobby (i.e. adiction as Opa Marshall says) even though there are hundreds of dollars worth of Aerosoft, Blueprint, LatinVR etc add-ons installed.Although a minor issue, the program listing afcad duplicates no longer functions either.This may be one for the record books.If this posting is in the wrong area I trust that the moderators will move it for me.Thank's to all for reading this rant!

I speculate that the quick fix was a restoration to a point way back in time. When it's messed up like this I personally would do a complete re-installation, starting with windows. I know it sounds painful. But it's really just a few hours of work. And at the end you'll have a brand new computer to run your sim.

I speculate that the quick fix was a restoration to a point way back in time. When it's messed up like this I personally would do a complete re-installation, starting with windows. I know it sounds painful. But it's really just a few hours of work. And at the end you'll have a brand new computer to run your sim.

Thanks Jason.I suspect your right.700 add-on sceneries.I'm about to enter a black hole.

Hi look at it positively and this can be a good chance for you to reorganize your sim. How many of those 700 sceneries do you really fly in and out of often? I used to love sceneries too but then later I started to focus on quality aircraft addons. Now my FS9 does not have any location specific scenery installed. This way my sim world is "equal". I get to fly to many more airports rather than the pretty few. Get GE Pro, REX & etc. and build a new and better looking sim world. :(

In addition, I would seriously consider getting an external HD and a good Image creation program and make Images of your entire system on a regular basis.I did that after as disasterous infection by a virus last Christmas which required a HD reformat, re-install of my OS and then all my regular and FS stuff. A real pain in the rear end.Shortly afterward I did purchase an extrenal HD and an Image program and began creating complete images once a month.It paid off for me last week when I somehow got a "worm" which did not do much damage but did cause my e-mail and virus programs to close immediately after invoking them.I had the Image program restore my system to the last Image (which was made just a week before the worm struck) so I was back in business in no time with only a few items to reinstall again.Hopefully you will never need to do a restoration, but if you do, it is a piece of cake! :(

I recently had a computer problem that blocked me from going on-line. After what Best Buy calls a "quick fix" (and it was) internet access was restored. However...The first time I started FS9 I recieved a startup notice that over 50 scenery files where not recognized. 50 plus!Further examination revealed that some add-on airport scenery folders had 'lost' their contents! (scenery/texture).Also...all afcads...modified AND share-ware (UK2000/Aerosoft/Blueprint/etc) had defaulted to MS FS9! Example: I had turned back the clock at Travis AFB to include parking for a/c from the 50's as well as modern using the afcad created in 2008 byJim Cook. That one defaulted as well, empying the tarmac. I re-installed his afcad...and that one defaulted as well on start up. This may be only the beginning. I have not tried to deal with aircraft and at this point I feel like dumping the entire hobby (i.e. adiction as Opa Marshall says) even though there are hundreds of dollars worth of Aerosoft, Blueprint, LatinVR etc add-ons installed.Although a minor issue, the program listing afcad duplicates no longer functions either.This may be one for the record books.If this posting is in the wrong area I trust that the moderators will move it for me.Thank's to all for reading this rant!

It appears to me that the 'quick' fix someone applied to your system messed up the registry entries for you. Although ScanAFD is not a installed to registry program it does look for the FS entry. That tells me that the FS registry address as well any of your addons that install in a registry key location are ruined. With that said, I am however, quite surprised that you are not having problems with other programs besides FS related software. If your OS is functioning properly and all other installed software works the way it is supposed to, then one option to try; make a copy of all your important FS related stuff or the entire FS folder (if possible) to a temporary location on a ext. HD (if possible); run the uninstallers for all your FS addons; run the installer for FS; manually delete all FS related files left behind in programs\ microsoft games and Documents and settings\"your user name"\application data\microsoft\FS9; run a registry cleaning utility to remove any remaning FS related entries; reinstall FS and add on material copying back your AFCADs etc from your backup copy; Test, if everything works then defrag the HD. Of course, as already suggested, you could choose to wipe the HD and reinstall everything and that may be the only way to remove what caused the problem in the first place so you may avoid future issues. IF YOU DO PLEASE REMEMBER TO BACKUP ALL OF YOUR SOFTWARE KEYS, LICENSES, AND PASSWORDS and any other important data. This is of course my take on the situation and based on my humble opinion.I agree completely with David and others that an external drive as a backup is a great way to avoid gray hair and deep depression. I have a Ext HD with a complete copy of FS9 (among other things) on it that I update once a month so that it reflects any modifications that have been made over that period. I am actually thinking of getting another Ext HD just to backup the backup.Good luck with whatever you choose to do.Regards,Mel

To Opa and Mel ( and of course any interested parties)I do have an external drive. Opa, I, like you would ad all updates weekly.Now here's the stunner.What ever happened to FS before I took the pc in for a "quick fix" happened to the exteral drive as well (which unfortunately was connected and powered up at the time). I copied the afcads from Addon Scenery/scenery to the main pc and their corrupted as well.What I have learned about this hobby how to's and computer wacka-doodle I learned from your Tips and Tricks postings. Thank you for those.Mel: I do have the registration keys foldered in the external drive...(and hopefully when I begin to tackle this monster task)...they still work.In the meantime...simMarket is gonna take a hit ($) for the underterminable time that I'm...down. I've been cruising the FS skies since 1998 and withdrawals, I know from past PC upgrades (thrice)...are depressing. :(

EUREKA!Problem solved!It turns out that the Best Buy "Quick Fix" defaulted the pc settings to a Vista feature called "Administrator Account Control" (or sumptin like that) which I turned off almost 3 years ago. For whatever reason, the add-ons since that time were not being recognized thus the missing sceneries and afcads. Once I turned Administrator Account etc off...everything was back to normal (but will I ever be?).Never the less...maybe this will be useful down the road for unsuspecting others.Again. May thanks for the responses!Viva ... la ... whatever... :(

You encountered the VISTA paranoia user access control. Anything installed on any disk partition (C: or D: or . . .) under a Program Files and all subfolders under it gets special protection and an application needs to be run as an admin (as well as the user) to get access to those files.You can create shortcuts to all of the applications you use and set the property for those shortcuts to run as admin. This applies to FS as well. Alternately you can just turn off what I think is called User Access Control but I don't use VISTA. "Opa" has several postings describing this mess. So in your example ScanAFD not having admin access rights would miss (not have access) to any of the scenery folders under the FS tree.The moral:Applications that need to have data accessed by other programs should not be installed under any Program Files folder under VISTA.I'm happy with XP. :)

EUREKA!Problem solved!It turns out that the Best Buy "Quick Fix" defaulted the pc settings to a Vista feature called "Administrator Account Control" (or sumptin like that) which I turned off almost 3 years ago. For whatever reason, the add-ons since that time were not being recognized thus the missing sceneries and afcads. Once I turned Administrator Account etc off...everything was back to normal (but will I ever be?).Never the less...maybe this will be useful down the road for unsuspecting others.Again. May thanks for the responses!Viva ... la ... whatever... :(

I'm glad you found your problem's cause and that it is only a medium headache instead of a major one. Thank you for the update. Microsoft,.........., gotta luv um!Regards,Mel

I'm curious now. I've never made backup images. How does that work? How large are the images? How exactly do you format and reinstall from the image?

I'm curious now. I've never made backup images. How does that work? How large are the images? How exactly do you format and reinstall from the image?

The size of the image will depend upon what you have on your HD that you are making the image of.My most recent full image - which includes the Operating System too - was 91,710,910 KB.My image program comes with a special bootable disk that I boot from if I want to restore the full image. Since the OS is being restored also you cannot boot from your HD.Once I invoke the restoration, the complete image is then copied unto my HD - overwriting everything which is there.If I wanted to, I could reformat my HD prior to restoring the image.Hope that helps you understand the basic concepts.

Hi David, I don't know if you've posted it elsewhere, but could I ask what software you are using?Best regards,MelPlease disregard, I found the answer: O and O Diskimage.

The size of the image will depend upon what you have on your HD that you are making the image of.My most recent full image - which includes the Operating System too - was 91,710,910 KB.My image program comes with a special bootable disk that I boot from if I want to restore the full image. Since the OS is being restored also you cannot boot from your HD.Once I invoke the restoration, the complete image is then copied unto my HD - overwriting everything which is there.If I wanted to, I could reformat my HD prior to restoring the image.Hope that helps you understand the basic concepts.

Just to make sure I understand this correctly...If I take an image of my current OS harddrive (everything included), I can just format using that image as a substitute for using the windows disk and reinstalling everything? How exactly can you make that image bootable? You need to dedicate a whole HDD to that image?

Just to make sure I understand this correctly...If I take an image of my current OS harddrive (everything included), I can just format using that image as a substitute for using the windows disk and reinstalling everything? How exactly can you make that image bootable? You need to dedicate a whole HDD to that image?

I can't speak about other Image programs (but I imagine they all use the same basic concepts) -O and O comes with a special bootable CD disk - that is what gets booted so you can access the computer and the Image you want to restore. The Image would be stored on a separate HD - mine is one of the Free Agent type which are so popular now - connects to the PC via a USB port. If memory serves it is 1 TB size.I believe many of the Image programs have trial versions so you can see just how they work.Hope that helps.