About a month ago, I suffered a Windows (XP) failure and required a reinstall of Windows. I have a current backup on an external drive, so I don't think I lost much data. But it is really slow as I need to reinstall all the software utilities, like Ultimate Traffic, Ultimate Terrain, all the scenery, etc. I tried to short cut copying some aircraft, but that has cause some problems. Some aircraft I copied over are dumping FS9, so I'm not getting all the files. I'm looking for a way to move the aircraft from the external drive, as some of the aircraft I had are no longer available, such as the FFS Saab 340 or the AOPA C112.So here's the question ... I'm looking for software to help me install aircraft by looking at an installed aircraft an identifying what files are missing. Then I can go get them from the external drive and move them over. Payware or freeware would be fine. Any ideas?I'm also looking for a good software package the helps install and manage scenery files, for both FS9 and FSX. Any recommendations?I know there are some cool utilities to help make all the computer tasks easier. While I have manually installed aircraft and scenery for years, I'd like to try using a tool to help, especially now that I have dozens of scenery packages that need to be installed.Thanks in advance for your ideas and opinions!Rob

No replies on this topic? I thought there would be some good ideas for software helps on this one.Any ideas at all would help ... Rob

Currently changing to XP x64 and I have to install everything one at a time.My only saving grace is that I bought another drive to do it on so I have my original x32 FS9.I'll still install everything separately, But I can transfer over aircraft folders once I have the base installed. So at least all my liveries will be in tact.Personally, I would do it any other way, If you had software to do it and something went wrong,where would you start looking?

Currently changing to XP x64 and I have to install everything one at a time.My only saving grace is that I bought another drive to do it on so I have my original x32 FS9.I'll still install everything separately, But I can transfer over aircraft folders once I have the base installed. So at least all my liveries will be in tact.Personally, I would do it any other way, If you had software to do it and something went wrong,where would you start looking?

Thanks for the reply. I'm doing the same as you suggested now. I thought there might be a short cut.One challenge is moving the aircraft over ... so many have custom sounds, gauges, effects, etc., I'm having trouble finding everything. I wish everything was in the aircraft folder, but it isn't.

No replies on this topic? I thought there would be some good ideas for software helps on this one.

Usually when you don't get a reply it means that nobody knows of an answer to the question. Perhaps you are asking the impossible. I have never heard of any such software, it would be time-consuming and expensive to develop and few people would want to buy it for one use.So you really have a simple choice:

1. Reinstall from backup
2. Reinstall each add-on individually

It all boils down to how happy you were with your original setup, how regimental you were about installing and removing etc.It might have been easier to repair your Windows installation, or reinstall without reformatting, but I presume it is too late now.John

Hi Rob,Over the years I've found that best practice on re-loads (FS or any other program) is to install the program from scratch then copy over the backup on top of it and into other folders that it may have created files. The reasoning for this is more to get my "settings" back than anything else. Many progs installs DLLs or other system files that need to be registered by the system. This is the reason to do a clean install. To get your settings back is usually a cfg or ini file sitting in a directory you most likely backed up, so those you can copy over the install files. Just make sure you clean install the same version you were running before the refresh.Hope that gives you some food for thought.Chris