cold boot, MSFSX folder @ 62 Gb (mostly ORBX, no photo scenery except that provided with the ORBX airports)load to Free flight screen: 10.5 secload flight, Turbine Duke at 74S Anacortes: 58 secJim

It also depends on how many addon aircraft you have. They are all scanned on load a flight.In my case, I have over 1100 addon aircraft and FSX takes forever to load.

2 min 50 sec. for 61,2 GB of FSX on an 1 TB 7500 RPM HDD. I guess a bit on the slow side but the IQ and performance in FSX is perfect, so no need to change anything :(

It also depends on how many addon aircraft you have. They are all scanned on load a flight.In my case, I have over 1100 addon aircraft and FSX takes forever to load.

Well, how about deletinmg some of them? (I don´t think you fly all of them.)

I have really lots of scenery, aircraft, liveries installed... I run it off the WD Raptor, my FSX loads in worst times, after I load the windows, all fresh, under one minute definitely.I'm talking about 160GB FSX installation all in all - but notice that some of big sceneries like mesh for instance are on another 7200rpm drive. I'm not filling my Raptor to the max.I never see a 10 minute load. That is way too extreme.

Yup, 10 minutes is not normal. I am fortunate as my 160gb loads in 30 seconds! That's what you get with an SSD...

Well this could be a breakthrough. I have some of the same problems but I never thought to check the anti virus. I have been trying to configure this in microsoft security essentals and I can't figure it out. I don't want to mess up settings mostly because I have been through hell and back trying to configure the anti virus for fsdt airports and I don't want to loose those. Can anybody help me with what settings I need to change in microsoft security essentals. I would have thought it to be pretty easy but like most things today it isn't easy, thanks

One thing I now do is if I am going to fly a SAVED flight,I load it from my documents/fsx flights, i.e. bypass the FSX startup and this does save time.This won't help if you are creating a new flight.Ron

Holger IS correct. Real-time file scanning by your anti-virus program WILL cause slow loading and contribute to un-smooth flight while flying. If you virus scanner is "delaying" the loading of any file when FSX wants to use it, FSX has to wait. This is a prime cause of stuttering while FSX loads new scenery textures while flying...especially with Photoscenery and any textures. Photoscenery files are huge in size and can take a little while for you virus scanner to scan them. You should ensure you use the "exceptions" part of your virus scanning software to "exclude" ALL directories for ANY FSX folder, AND addon folders installed outside the FSX folder, like weather generators, etc. If you have anything in a folder on your computer that FSX will want to use during an FSX session, either those individual files or the entire folder should be "excluded" from your real-time virus scanning.The rest of the info in this thread is also correct. Simply...the more "stuff" you have added to a default install of FSX, the longer FSX is going to take to load.And if you fly online (VATSIM, etc), don't forget those folders either.As for "needing" an SSD drive, if you don't have one yet, don't buy one to try to solve the "slow loading" problem until you have made sure nothing ELSE is causing it...like an incorrectly configured anti-virus program. I still don't own any SSD drives. Don't need them for my FSX and I have TONS of addons loading at startup, and no stutters while flying, using a TH2G 3-monitor setup at 5040 x 1050 resolution (so FSX has to load lots of stuff all the time to display it while flying). Get your FSX and your computer applications configured correctly FIRST. THEN if you still have problems, consider upgrading your hardware for more "speed".

For Boslo:Microsoft maintains a huge website where you can get your answers. There is a Knowledge Base for Security Essentials, and you can even post to ask specific questions about your Microsoft product and how to configure it. For your Security Essentials, start here.http://support.microsoft.com/ph/15931Also, your Security Essentials probably includes an installed "Help System" where you can click on the "question mark" (or somethng similar) that will open up included HTML documents included with the software. Kinda like the "Learning Center" that comes with FSX that many people don't ever bother reading. ;-)

I also wanted to try that antivirus exclude but i don´t see whether thats possible. I´ve got Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 (which is btw. very good and not really ressource hungry) but I havn´t seen any possibility to execlude the fSX folder from checking.

About 40 seconds here. HSDL SSD, around 100Gb used pure FSX drive, nothing else on it. Only add-on Aircraft are MD11, J41 and NGX.Mytraffic adds to the load times, FSGenesis, UTX and GEX seem pretty light, makes little or no difference. Mytraffic makes a massive difference to the running memory.Running MS Security essentials, without scanning my F: drive (FSX Drive) load times 38(ish) seconds, when scanning, exactly the same. I don't suffer from any micro-stutters. Not saying that turning off your scanner will make no difference, just it's probably pretty insignificant compared to the amount of data loading.

I run ActiveSky Evolution, and wait til IT loads (about 30 seconds). Then I click on FSX in the AS Evolution screen. From there it's about a minute and a half.Stan

Well this could be a breakthrough. I have some of the same problems but I never thought to check the anti virus. I have been trying to configure this in microsoft security essentals and I can't figure it out. I don't want to mess up settings mostly because I have been through hell and back trying to configure the anti virus for fsdt airports and I don't want to loose those. Can anybody help me with what settings I need to change in microsoft security essentals. I would have thought it to be pretty easy but like most things today it isn't easy, thanks

Actually, it *IS* pretty easy. Open Security Essentials->Settings Tab->Excluded files and locations->Browse buttonBrowse to the location of your fsx folder, click OK, click Add button, click Save Changes button

I have MegaScenery SOCAL and it does not delay my startup....

MegaSceneryX SoCal is 16 GBy, whereas MegaSceneryEarth California State Complete is 101 GBy, in addition to the 16 GBy for SoCal. And I also have Arizona State Complete (42 GBy) for a total of 159 GBy vs. your 16 GBy. That's why I get 10+ minute start-up for FSX on HDDs.Cheers,- jahman.

MegaSceneryX SoCal is 16 GBy, whereas MegaSceneryEarth California State Complete is 101 GBy, in addition to the 16 GBy for SoCal. And I also have Arizona State Complete (42 GBy) for a total of 159 GBy vs. your 16 GBy. That's why I get 10+ minute start-up for FSX on HDDs.Cheers,- jahman.

Me too Jahman, and to the others posting SSD speeds it is not fair to compare SSD to SATA. My photo scenery folder alone is over 300GB....