How to move FS to a new drive without modifying anything

[psolk 3,040]

So I have had an SSD that I picked up on my travels laying around and wanted to see if I could somehow move my entire FS directory to the new drive while maintaining my old drive letter and registry settings. I don't want to use the SSD for anything but FS and the last thing I wanted to do was to have to reinstall everything. To no avail, I "had" FS installed on the same drive as the OS so you can not assign that drive a new letter. Then I thought of something pretty cool that is working like a charm and figured others might like the tip as well...1. Install your new SSD or just new drive2. Open Disk Manager and assign the new drive a random drive letter.3. Copy the contents of the entire FS directory(not the directory itself, all the files and folders within) to the new SSD Drive (directly to the root of the drive, not into any folder) 4. Rename the FS Directory (on the old drive) to Backup (or whatever you like)5. Create an empty folder on the OLD drive with the same FS directory name as before (Flight Simulator 9 or FS9, whatever you had it installed to before) 6. Go back into disk management and delete the drive letter for the new SSD Drive now containing your FS dierectory (not the drive, just the drive letter)7. Right click the new drive and say Change Drive Letters or Paths8. THIS IS THE KEY..... Do not assign it a drive letter but rather say Mount to an empty NTFS folder or directory9. Mount the SSD in the empty FS directory on the old drive10. You are done... Now your new SSD is your virtual FS directory and none of your add-ons or registry settings have any clue anything ever changed... All it knows is the same directory that used to be there is still there, even if it is only virtual and that directory is really a separate SSD :) Now you have virtually mounted the entire new SSD drive as your FS directory :) As far as the computer knows the old directory is still there as it always was, it is just using the new drive insteadThis is by FAR the easiest way I have found to move FS to a new drive without worrying about registries or reinstalling... (If drive re-lettering is not an option)Wow, can't believe I never though of this earlier.Hope it helps someone else trying to move FS to a new drive without installing everything as well!!!-Paul

[graemeb 14]

Or... you could have created an NTFS softlink. I have done this for several folders on my system and it works well. All my FS data resides on a separate dive, but in the C:\Program Files folder is a softlink (kind of like a shortcut link) so that the system thinks everything is on C: drive, whereas it is actually elsewhere.Anyway, both methods achieve the same result. :(

[psolk 3,040]

Or... you could have created an NTFS softlink. I have done this for several folders on my system and it works well. All my FS data resides on a separate dive, but in the C:\Program Files folder is a softlink (kind of like a shortcut link) so that the system thinks everything is on C: drive, whereas it is actually elsewhere.Anyway, both methods achieve the same result. :(

Guess I am going to be googling NTFS Softlink tonight too :)Thanks Graeme, always enjoying picking up a new tip,-Paul

[Guest jackfrost]

This sounds like exactly the kind of solution I have been looking for recently!! You say that there's no difference and in essence, if I read your post right, you are tricking the computer as to the location of FS9? My question is when installing new addons will they still know (or think they know) where FS9 is installed?Also when buying a new hard drive, do you have to take into account power supply like you would for a new graphics card?Thanks Jack

[acmech 2]

So I have had an SSD that I picked up on my travels laying around and wanted to see if I could somehow move my entire FS directory to the new drive while maintaining my old drive letter and registry settings. I don't want to use the SSD for anything but FS and the last thing I wanted to do was to have to reinstall everything. To no avail, I "had" FS installed on the same drive as the OS so you can not assign that drive a new letter. Then I thought of something pretty cool that is working like a charm and figured others might like the tip as well...1. Install your new SSD or just new drive2. Open Disk Manager and assign the new drive a random drive letter.3. Copy the contents of the entire FS directory(not the directory itself, all the files and folders within) to the new SSD Drive (directly to the root of the drive, not into any folder) 4. Rename the FS Directory (on the old drive) to Backup (or whatever you like)5. Create an empty folder on the OLD drive with the same FS directory name as before (Flight Simulator 9 or FS9, whatever you had it installed to before) 6. Go back into disk management and delete the drive letter for the new SSD Drive now containing your FS dierectory (not the drive, just the drive letter)7. Right click the new drive and say Change Drive Letters or Paths8. THIS IS THE KEY..... Do not assign it a drive letter but rather say Mount to an empty NTFS folder or directory9. Mount the SSD in the empty FS directory on the old drive10. You are done... Now your new SSD is your virtual FS directory and none of your add-ons or registry settings have any clue anything ever changed... All it knows is the same directory that used to be there is still there, even if it is only virtual and that directory is really a separate SSD :) Now you have virtually mounted the entire new SSD drive as your FS directory :) As far as the computer knows the old directory is still there as it always was, it is just using the new drive insteadThis is by FAR the easiest way I have found to move FS to a new drive without worrying about registries or reinstalling... (If drive re-lettering is not an option)Wow, can't believe I never though of this earlier.Hope it helps someone else trying to move FS to a new drive without installing everything as well!!!-Paul

Great Idea but I know this for a fact because I have two ssd drives .If the os is not on the same drive as fs9 you will get about half the frame rates as opposed to having the os on the same drive as fs9.

[psolk 3,040]

Great Idea but I know this for a fact because I have two ssd drives .If the os is not on the same drive as fs9 you will get about half the frame rates as opposed to having the os on the same drive as fs9.

That is definitely the first I have heard of that and I don't see any FPS difference at all... The only difference I notice is textures look much crisper on the SSD with much less texture popping...I haven't' heard that about the SSD's but will certainly take another look today.As for the other questions, yes, everything will still know where FS9 is. As far as the computer is concerned FS is right where it has always been, it is just running off a separate SSD now.And as for power, in most cases no. An HDD does not have the dual 12V rail power consumption requirements of most new video cards but if you are already running 5 drives, liquid cooling, additional fans etc... you should definitely pay attention. In most cases though a single HDD will not require a new power supply.-Paul

[psolk 3,040]

Great Idea but I know this for a fact because I have two ssd drives .If the os is not on the same drive as fs9 you will get about half the frame rates as opposed to having the os on the same drive as fs9.

I definitely can't validate this one right now. I see zero FPS difference (which is what I expected) but the SSD drive appears to produce a better image than my dual 10K Velociraptors in RAID with a quicker texture draw, and a smoother flight with much much less microstutter as well. (which is what I was hoping) Now this is my first long flight so there might be some placebo here but I don't have any distant blotches popping into textures anymore; the whole screen (@ 2048*1152) is just a beautiful textured world and FPS are exactly what they were prior to moving FS off the OS drive and onto its own SSD. So I don't deny, argue or doubt it happened on your box but I can't reproduce it here. I know I don't consider everything that happens on my box to be a fact for everyone elses, that is the "beauty" of computers :( In fact, most of what happens on my box most people can't seem to ever replicate it is like your car not doing something it has been doing every day for 6 months the ONE TIME the mechanic is in the car :( Cheers,-Paul

[scott967 62]

In the past on Win XP I have used a freeware utility "junction link magic" to do this sort of thing. Worked very well. http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htmscott s..

[psolk 3,040]

In the past on Win XP I have used a freeware utility "junction link magic" to do this sort of thing. Worked very well. http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htmscott s..

Nice find Scott, thanks for sharing...Paul

[Guest Dave March]

It's probably best to run FS on a different drive to your OS for a number of reasons and FS should actually run better on its own drive.