How to move FS to a new drive without modifying anything

[psolk 3,040]

Posted in the FS9 forums as well but I know some do not check there and also know this is a pretty hot topic so posted it here as well...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

[yellowjack 28]

That's one perfectly valid way. I just installed my SSD and partitioned it using Partition Commander. Took my old drive down then re-lettered the new SSD drive partitions and did a Ghost recovery from backups I made, prior to starting, to the new partitions. The old drive is now sitting on my shelf with Flightsim and two other partitions ready to run should the need arise.