Dear All,I run FSX on my 120 GB SSD (btw: in the default location) under W7 Home Premium 64bit. The company that build the computer one year ago installed W7 on the SSD. I use this computer exclusivly for FSX and two other sims (racing - that are installed on the HDD). After installing most of my add-ons (on the SSD) I face the situation that only less than 15 GB remain. That is not much. Do you think it would be a reasonable idea to transfer W7 (including all related stuff like virus scanner, etc) to the HDD (1 TB) and to have (only) FSX on the SSD? Or would this cause problems?This would mean to a) transfer all (down load add-on-)files from the HDD to a network computer (as back up), :( format the HDD (and split it into two partitions), c) install W7 new on the HDD (and make it the boot drive) and then d) transfer all files back to HDDe) format the SSD and d) install FSX new on the SSD, correct? Or does anyone see an easier way to do it. Is it possible to have some add-ons (like planes) on the HDD? I assume not since their files need to be copied into the FSX folders, correct?Any of your thoughts are appreciated!

Hmmm...I actually have the exact same problem as you! I would also like some help.

Is it possible to have some add-ons (like planes) on the HDD?

You're on the right track as far as reinstallation of Windows 7 and reinstalling FSX. I have Windows 7 plus FSX all on my 240 GB SSD and I have used up 137 GB so far. I moved my Pictures folder to the HDD as I was nearing 190 GB of used space. I have a lot of pictures... FSX will load a bit faster on an SSD but that's it. There is no other noticeable gain. What I did to save lots and lots of space on the SSD was to relocate all my photoscenery to the HHD and then added it to the Scenery Library. Some scenery files, like Orbix/FTX scenery, cannot be relocated and Ultimate Terrain X files too have to stay in the main FSX directory, but everything else, including FSDT airports/scenery (you will have to search FSDT for the proper way to do this). If you have UTX, you might check with that forum as they may now have a way to relocated these files to another HDD. Your Addon Scenery folder can be located on a separate drive too. You just have to show it's proper location in the scenery library (actually, if you have any addon scenery, it is best to put it in a folder of its own with a Scenery folder below it then place that on another HHD and then add it to your Scenery Library). Your FSX Scenery folders and your Aircraft folders cannot be relocated. If you install GEX, this program replaces your default scenery textures and makes a backup of the default if you want a backup. You can place this backup folder on another HDD but you'll have to remember to return it if you ever want to bring back your default textures. I never made a backup and figure I'll reinstall or repair FSX if I ever need the default textures back. But that folder, if you have it, takes up a lot of space on your SSD. That's about all I can recommend. Good luck with your reinstallations if you go that route.Best regards,JimForgot to mention FSX also has a folder in My Documents/Flight Simulation. This folder gets built up with a lot of pictures and I clean it out occasionally and move the ones I want to keep to another folder on another HHD. Still thinking....Best regards,Jim

FSX will load a bit faster on an SSD but that's it.Best regards,Jim

Not true. An SSD will also help with texture load in flight, I certainly learnt that after I upgraded to an SSD from a 7200rpm HDD.

Not true. An SSD will also help with texture load in flight

Was this before you installed an AI program like MyTrafficX? I witnessed this phenonomen too when I first installed FSX with maybe a couple of FSX addons then things drastically dropped. I think if you read the AVSIM hardware forum and look at some of the benchmarks, there is little or no disernible increase. It will load FSX faster though. That is what I witnessed with my SSD. It yours is working better, that's great!Best regards,Jim

Yes, things drastically dropped for me too on my old HDD. I had ORBX AI traffic, ORBX AU SP4 and some OZX scenery on it. Whenever I switched to tower view, AI aircraft view or I was even just sitting in my cockpit (sometimes) the ground textures would get very, very "mushy" and it looked like mud or water that was polluted. It took 30-40 seconds for those textures to load back up to normal so in the end I put the "texture resolution" bar in FSX to 2 metres so they'd load up quicker but that only improved it a little bit. But still, I found it quite ironic that the textures blurred while I was sitting in the cockpit for the whole time flying (keep in mind that I was flying the default C172, so it did'nt put a very big load on FSX) so I presumed only that problem was due to my old graphics card ( an NVIDIA GT220, 1gb) had a low core and memory clock. I now have an ASUS GTX 560(no-Ti). But with my new computer with an SSD, I don't have the cockpit problem at all but I still have the ground textures problem with AI planes and Tower view which is perfectly normal with those textures loading up in an absolutely impressive time of 5-10 seconds depending on what texture setting I had set.Apologies for hijacking this thread with talk about graphics cards and SSD's,Frank

No apologies needed, Frank! Back to the topic:

Would it be possible to copy the FSX-folder (as is) to a backup location (to another computer in the network) and later transfer it back to the SSD after everything else was done?

 

That would save me a lot of time as I have dozens of add-ons with patches and tweaks installed...

 

I see that it might be necessary to not to copy it back to C:/FSX since the correct path is used in certain parts and installations of FSX. However, would it be possible to use some empty dummy folders (C:/Windows/x86/Games/FSX) as to keep the current path? I would run W7 in another drive (I:).

 

Any help is welcome!

Would it be possible to copy the FSX-folder (as is) to a backup location (to another computer in the network) and later transfer it back to the SSD after everything else was done?

 

Check this link - http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Registry-Tweak/FSX-Registry-Utility.shtml.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Thanks Jim, very helpful.

 

So I think I can transfer the complete FSX-installation to my HDD, formate the SDD and copy the FSX-installation back to the SSD (after deleting the OS from it).

 

That will save me one day of installation work! Great!

 

Best regards,

Till

Dear All,

 

I run FSX on my 120 GB SSD (btw: in the default location) under W7 Home Premium 64bit. The company that build the computer one year ago installed W7 on the SSD.

 

I use this computer exclusivly for FSX and two other sims (racing - that are installed on the HDD). After installing most of my add-ons (on the SSD) I face the situation that only less than 15 GB remain. That is not much. Do you think it would be a reasonable idea to transfer W7 (including all related stuff like virus scanner, etc) to the HDD (1 TB) and to have (only) FSX on the SSD? Or would this cause problems?

 

This would mean to

a) transfer all (down load add-on-)files from the HDD to a network computer (as back up),

B) format the HDD (and split it into two partitions),

c) install W7 new on the HDD (and make it the boot drive) and then

d) transfer all files back to HDD

e) format the SSD and

d) install FSX new on the SSD,

correct? Or does anyone see an easier way to do it.

 

Is it possible to have some add-ons (like planes) on the HDD? I assume not since their files need to be copied into the FSX folders, correct?

 

Any of your thoughts are appreciated!

 

I am thinking of doing something like this as well by this method:

 

Image back up existing C: drive

Install/partition new hardware (don't think format is required)

Restore image into new hardware -- This should get you into a bootable Win 7

Change the drive letter assignment of the original drive as desired

Delete the files in the "new" C: drive fsx folder

Create a junction link from the old fsx folder to the new one -- This should make all your fsx files appear to be on the C: drive even though they are actually on the old drive. I don't know if there is a performance penalty for using a junction link, but I'm thinking not too much if any.

 

scott s.

.

I am thinking of doing something like this as well by this method:

 

 

Thanks Scott!

 

Do you have any experience with this "move" of the drives?

 

I assume that you have to tell the BIOS to use the new hardware (in my case the HDD) to be the boot drive.

 

And can you please explane what you mean by to "create a junction"?

 

And finally: How can I delete the W7 files from my SSD to gain the space I am looking for?

 

Best, Till