If I have a PC with two hard drives (2 x 600GB WD Velociraptors, (10,000 rpm) in this case), would the following be a good way of setting up Windows 7, FSX and FS9, or are there better solutions?1st. Disk. 1st partition (c.50GB - enough?): Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit / 2nd. partition (c.250GBs): FS9 folders/ 3rd. partition (c.300GB): FSX folders2nd. Disk. 1st partition (c.??GB - size? 6GBs RAM - leave room to defrag??): Paging File for Windows installation / 2nd. partition (remainder of drive): Backup of FS9 & FSX folders (I use XXCopy to make a cloned copy for security)Or is there some reason that FS9 & FSX would work better on separate hard drives? I assume that FS9 & FSX will sit together OK in the same Windows installation - no need for a dual booting setup?Thanks for any input - I want to set this up right, with suitable partitions, first time!Martin

If I have a PC with two hard drives (2 x 600GB WD Velociraptors, (10,000 rpm) in this case), would the following be a good way of setting up Windows 7, FSX and FS9, or are there better solutions?1st. Disk. 1st partition (c.50GB - enough?): Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit / 2nd. partition (c.250GBs): FS9 folders/ 3rd. partition (c.300GB): FSX folders2nd. Disk. 1st partition (c.??GB - size? 6GBs RAM - leave room to defrag??): Paging File for Windows installation / 2nd. partition (remainder of drive): Backup of FS9 & FSX folders (I use XXCopy to make a cloned copy for security)Or is there some reason that FS9 & FSX would work better on separate hard drives? I assume that FS9 & FSX will sit together OK in the same Windows installation - no need for a dual booting setup?Thanks for any input - I want to set this up right, with suitable partitions, first time!Martin

Put the OS on its own drive Put FS9 and FSX on the second drive each on its own partition, this will be better for defrag purposes.Buy an external usb hard drive for images large enough to accommodate all three images Store the usb HD away from your pc.

Hi,Seems good. I could however put the security copies of FS9 & FSX on the same drive as the OS. I wouldn't make images of the two FS partitions as I change and update them very regularly and am used to backing up the folders themselves every week or so - XXCopy just updates the files, removing whatever has been deleted. I've been doing this for some years and it works really well for me. I do keep an image of the OS partition on a separate external HDD (I have about six of them now, so that would be no problem).Thanks,Martin

If you're picking up new drives, skip the Velociraptors and get some very high capacity drives instead, and split them both in half with partitioning...Here's an easy, simple, and effective setup which will save money and maintain good performance.C:\ = 1.5-2.0 TB Drive with 2 partitions split 50/50Partition 1 - Operating System and General Applications Partition 2 - Local backup for flightsim drive.D:\ = 1.5-2.0 TB Drive with 2 partitions split 50/50Partition 1 - Flight Sim Drive (Both FSX and FS9)Partition 2 - Local backup for system driveE:\ = External USB2 backup drivePartition 1 - Any and all backup items you wish... recommended image of C: drive, and any payware/freeware "master" files you have collected. (Don't forget music, pictures, documents, finances, emails, etc.)

• New high density, high capacity drives come VERY close to matching VRaps when it comes to data read rates. When properly arranged and defragged, the difference will only be noticeable to a benchmark utility, not the naked eye. Instead of buying expensive VRaps, buy very high capacity 7200RPM drives... you can utilize the space with backups and save money while keeping high performance.
• Keeping the operating system and flight simulation drives PHYSICALLY separate is key to improving drive performance with the simulations. Keeping things separate on partitions does nothing for performance, because the same read/write heads need to scoot from one partition to another.
• By using the second partitions for backup purposes only, you reduce the movements of the read/write heads, which is one of the two speed killers on hard drives. Since you won't be performing backup jobs while flight simming, you can rest assured that your layout is efficient.
• Moving the page file to a second hard drive does not provide noticeable improvements, especially if you move it to the same physical drive as the simulations.This extra layer of setup complexity isn't warranted and rather than worrying about it during an emergency restore, it's best to just leave the page file in it's default location. A better tip would be to lock the page file to a specific size so it does not fragment.
• Separating FSX and FS9 into two individual partitions may be beneficial from a "housekeeping" point of view, but from a defrag and usage point of view it is not recommended. When defragging flightsim, you want to use a tool which can place all files in a specific order on the drive. If you separate the sims onto 2 partitions, you are forcing the drive to place the second partition farther down the hard drive, potentially reducing performance on whatever sim is placed there. I'd recommend installing both simulations to the same partition and using a defrag tool to keep them separate, with FSX up front and FS9 towards the back. Both flight sim directories will not change significantly over time, so once you have everything configured you can perform your sorted defragment job and probably follow up once a month to refresh it... (*I haven't run a sorted defrag on my FSX install in several weeks and all is still in very good order)
• Using your backup tools of choice, utilize the second partitions on each drive to house backups from the other physical drive. Continue to use the external hard drive as an "offsite" backup of your key items, but by periodically reflecting each internal hard drive to the other, you have additional insurance against the failure of those internal drives. Being SATA connected will also result in faster restoration times, if needed.
• Store your external USB hard drive away from your computer workstation... at a minimum, put it across on the other side of the house. The likelihood of a disaster utterly destroying every corner of your home is slim, so by storing it well away from your primary computer, you are giving yourself some insurance if something does destroy the primary computer. Alternatively, take the USB drive to work and store it there, giving you true "offsite" backup. Refresh this backup every week, month, or whatever timeframe you feel is appropriate.

Good luck!-Greg

If I have a PC with two hard drives (2 x 600GB WD Velociraptors, (10,000 rpm) in this case), would the following be a good way of setting up Windows 7, FSX and FS9, or are there better solutions?1st. Disk. 1st partition (c.50GB - enough?): Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit / 2nd. partition (c.250GBs): FS9 folders/ 3rd. partition (c.300GB): FSX folders2nd. Disk. 1st partition (c.??GB - size? 6GBs RAM - leave room to defrag??): Paging File for Windows installation / 2nd. partition (remainder of drive): Backup of FS9 & FSX folders (I use XXCopy to make a cloned copy for security)Or is there some reason that FS9 & FSX would work better on separate hard drives? I assume that FS9 & FSX will sit together OK in the same Windows installation - no need for a dual booting setup?Thanks for any input - I want to set this up right, with suitable partitions, first time!Martin

In my case it was easy 3 physical different drives :- 1 st. drive 500 GB O/S + development stuff + VM- 2 nd. drive 150 GB WD raptor FSX- 3 th. drive 70 GB WD raptor FS9

I see no reason to partition a hard drive these days. I have fs9 and fsx and all addons on the same 160 gb SSD. No problems!

Reckon I'll go for 2 x Corsair Force SSDs (60GB and 120GB) and 2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3s or F4s..

OK - it's ordered. Hard drive wise I have gone for:1 x Corsair Force 60GB F60 SSD for Windows 7 x641 x Corsair 120GB Force SSD for FlightSim2 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TBHope this will be OK!Thanks for the suggestions,Martin

I see no reason to partition a hard drive these days. I have fs9 and fsx and all addons on the same 160 gb SSD. No problems!

Same here! I have FS9 and FSX on one an the same 300 GB HD, no partition! Both sims run perfectly smooth without any problems. So why to make it complicated - there is absolutely no reason for partitions. Wolfgang

In my case it was easy 3 physical different drives :- 1 st. drive 500 GB O/S + development stuff + VM- 2 nd. drive 150 GB WD raptor FSX- 3 th. drive 70 GB WD raptor FS9

Hi Andre, Which drive do you have your add-on scenery, mesh, etc. installed?Thanks,Ken

Thanks for the good advice on this thread, just looking for this info myself!