Nick,I have followed your system tweak exactly the first time and what a difference! Thanks. I am now doing it again sinceI upgraded my hd and clean install of everything. I have 2 questions which I searched here and simforums.1. when fsx is on a separate disk from os and using the defrag methods, is it necessary to use the offline defrag? I am assuming the offline defrag is for page file and that only goes on the os disk so will running offline help, hurt, or make no difference?2. I read in another post by you to format the performance drive in 64 allocation. When I do this with acronis, windows does not see the disk and I have to revert back to the default allocation. Any thoughts or suggestions?ThanksEric

Nick,I have followed your system tweak exactly the first time and what a difference! Thanks. I am now doing it again sinceI upgraded my hd and clean install of everything. I have 2 questions which I searched here and simforums.1. when fsx is on a separate disk from os and using the defrag methods, is it necessary to use the offline defrag? I am assuming the offline defrag is for page file and that only goes on the os disk so will running offline help, hurt, or make no difference?2. I read in another post by you to format the performance drive in 64 allocation. When I do this with acronis, windows does not see the disk and I have to revert back to the default allocation. Any thoughts or suggestions?ThanksEric

I also have a question as I am about to load a brand new hdd with windows 7 and fsx. If I partition my hdd into two 500gb sections is there any performance benefit to loading windows onto one partition and dedicate the other partition to all things fsx?In terms of defragging I use auslogics defrag, it's free and seems to work fast and gives a noticeable performance improvement in fsx. However it doesn't have the option to do on or offline defrag. Whether this is something it does automatically I don't know. But it may be worth a look

I also have a question as I am about to load a brand new hdd with windows 7 and fsx. If I partition my hdd into two 500gb sections is there any performance benefit to loading windows onto one partition and dedicate the other partition to all things fsx?In terms of defragging I use auslogics defrag, it's free and seems to work fast and gives a noticeable performance improvement in fsx. However it doesn't have the option to do on or offline defrag. Whether this is something it does automatically I don't know. But it may be worth a look

see this one http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041this one is good info also http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...D=174413#174413

I also have a question as I am about to load a brand new hdd with windows 7 and fsx. If I partition my hdd into two 500gb sections is there any performance benefit to loading windows onto one partition and dedicate the other partition to all things fsx?

No - the benefit comes from a seperate drive not partition

In terms of defragging I use auslogics defrag, it's free and seems to work fast and gives a noticeable performance improvement in fsx. However it doesn't have the option to do on or offline defrag. Whether this is something it does automatically I don't know. But it may be worth a look

Part of the benefit of O&O is in the way it completely defrags the drive. Most other defraggers leave small gaps. Without doing a direct byte by byte comparison, YMMV.Vic

Operating system hard drive has to use default allocation. Another drive can use 64.

Operating system hard drive has to use default allocation. Another drive can use 64.

i get that..but would there be any reason windows doesnt see the drive when its formated to 64? I tried twice. does it have to be on a 64 bit os?

I would also like to know about offline defrag, since I'm using O&O 11 and it has some issues with Windows 7 and offline defrag (I read).

I would also like to know about offline defrag, since I'm using O&O 11 and it has some issues with Windows 7 and offline defrag (I read).

The offline defrag only needs to be used on an OS drive. Some system files are exclusively locked while the OS is "online". These files canonly be defragmented whenever the operating system is not locked "offline". Hence why the offline defrag runs prior to the OS during boot.

Again its worth reminding of one of the fundamental advantages of separate drives is that it can reduce the need to defragment the FSX installation as frequently. When FS and the OS share drive space, the OS ALWAYS has priority and will elbow the FS folders out of the way. While some advanced defrag utilities permit the selection of prioirty values for certain folders or files, it is always the case that the OS is operating in a dynamic regime and will fragment faster than anything else. Inevitably this has an effect on any dynamic changes made to the FS installation - for example installing a new aircraft or scenery, changing textures or mesh, or making any alterations to default files. (But not of you never make any changes to it - so a default-only user might not have to worry about it as `unchanged` means `unmoved` for the purposes of registering changes in relative file and folder positions. Anyone reading this DOES make changes, as you are unlikely to be a default gamer!!)By using a separate hard drive you can not only reduce the fragmentation, whcih means defrag runs are a lot quicker, you can also specifiy FS to the faster portions of the hard drive, free of the `bullying` from the OS! There is also the ramifications from OS messing up, where a clean install of the OS will necessarily wipe the FS installation, unless you back it up to a separate drive - and if you're doing that you may as well run it from there, anyway!

The offline defrag only needs to be used on an OS drive. Some system files are exclusively locked while the OS is "online". These files canonly be defragmented whenever the operating system is not locked "offline". Hence why the offline defrag runs prior to the OS during boot.

That what I thought but wanted to be sure. Fsx with all my addons sometimes acts like my wife, and I wanted to leave nothing to chance on a clean install and setup. Now I can finish this up.I have been working on this pc for about a month, hour here and there. I am not letting her with in 5 feet of the pc until its doneThanks!