I was thinkin' today..I have a 2nd HD in my computer that I'm not really using all that much (DV capture every once in a while). Is there any advantage to installing a separate copy of XP and FS9 on that drive or is this a waste of time? It would be nice to have an 'untouched by updates' copy running on my machine. Also, does XP detect two OSes and ask you which one you want to use?Thanks much,Mark

Don't think MSFS supports the idea of two installs as you can have only one entry in the Registry for FS. But I have two hard drives and use that second drive for all my addon scenery - it eases the strain on the main hard drive. FS doesn't care where the addon scenery folder is located, but if you do move it, remember you need to adjust your scenery .cfg to point to the new folder location.I think the only way to take advantage of a second installation of FS is to install it to a second computer and link it via one of the FSUIPC functions.Allcott

Mark: For what it's worth, I have my system set up with 2 hard drives and two installs of XP Home. Sometime ago I saw a post on the avsim forum about this. I decided to try it. I reformated my second hard drive "D", then used Blackviper's guide to "tune it". I am using his "supertweak" profile for now, but also have the "default" profile installed in case I do something stupid and can't boot from the "supertweak". Perhaps later I'll add the services for online play etc. Installed FS9 and so far all seems well. Fun to adjust all the sliders to really see how the game looks. I've found turning down most sliders to low, or of course minimal, leaves a lot of resources for other options. I have not installed the cloud fix, but with the ground sliders set to low, the default clouds at the ultra high setting are quite something, especially at dawn or dusk with the water slider turned up. Makes those over ocean flights much more scenic, with a resulting gain of some frames per second. Of course, pretty clouds come at a price, and it is up to you to judge how much or little detail you may want. I myself would rather see nice clouds and less land detail. Your tastes may differ.When your system boots you will get a choice of installations you wish to use. Both have the same name. At this time I do not know how to change the name to tell one XP install from the other,but as there are only two installs of XP, this is not really a problem. I have my new "virgin" FS9 installation on my D: drive, the original still on my C: to compare it with. I have also incorporated most of the tweaks that other folks have made known. Thanks to all those who have "gone before us" in trying to get FS9 to where it is today. I would not have tried most of this without their input. They are what make the flightsim community such a great pleasure to be a part of.Mind you, I do not in any way consider myself an expert on these matters. I simply wiped one hard drive, put in a fresh insyall of XP Home, and all appears to work as it should. A bit of a hassle to have to reboot into the D: drive, but with just the OS and flightsim related software and hardware installed, defragging is very fast, and if you use the "refresh" option in game, it takes a very short time to re-draw.Now that the patch is coming out, I guess we will see how it works with a semi-default intallation of FS9The caveat to all this is, please understand, I am no expert. "Your milage may differ". If anything is incorrect, please correct me, as I have found tweaking Flight Sim can be quite addicting, and that there is always more to learn.Hope this helps.

Hi,I also have a multiboot system, that is: I installed 2 x Windows XP Pro on separate drives (also possible on 1 drive but then a different partition)I did it for another reason you mention. I wanted to have a FS specific OS which is stripped of a lot of eye candy and services.My other OS I use for normal computing and this one has all business apps etc installed.I don't even have installed a virus scanner on my FS OS, because I don't access the internet via this OS.

Egbert: Yes, mine is set up exactly the same way. As time has gone on, I find I enjoy FS9 with more enhanced sky than with frame hogging ground elements. My pleasure comes from improved framerates and the resulting silky smooth handling of the aircraft while flying. I can "live with less" to enable this to happen. Downloading to my main drive I can easily install anything on my dedicated FS9 drive with little effort. I have found no problems with any of my downloaded payware aircraft installing into my "D" drive.

> At this time I do>not know how to change the name to tell one XP install from>the other,but as there are only two installs of XP, this is>not really a problem. To edit the bootscreen (where yours presumably just list "Windows XP Home" twice.........go Start/Settings/Controlpanel/System/Advanced. Near the bottom of the window you'll see"Startup and Recovery" "Settings"- Open Settings and you'll see about halfway down "Edit Startup Options file manually - click Edit " do so and the Boot Ini file will open and you'll see both copies of your OS listed there.Next before you alter the Boot.ini - make a copy and save it somewhere in case you you mess up the original..Then you can alter the names within the quotes to whatever you like(XP on C, XP on D) or whatever , save as and exit. Next time you startup you'll see your new names in the Boot options page.You can also alter the timeout to whatever you like. This below is what it should look like before alteration( this is for two OS on seperate partitions on one HDD but it'll give you the idea.......[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetectmulti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetectDave

One thing I do is to move the windows swap file to the drive that doesn't have fs9 installed on it. I have fs9 installed on my main drive, with my swap file on my 2nd drive.

I've been thinking of installing XP to my second hard drive. My question is do I need to buy a second copy of XP and if not how do I handle registering the second copy, or do I not need to?David

Thanks for all the info, guys. I just finished this up a few minutes ago. XP Pro on D drive w/FS9 and the original on C and all is better than well! REALLY smooth. Yes, I know that I have no add ons, but I'm enjoying it none the less. I'm going to tune everything, including BlackViper's list and add one thing at a time. I'm not connecting to the internet as a gentleman has described above so no MS updates or SP2 packs. Also, thanks for the info on renaming the D drive. I too have 'Windows XP Professional' listed twice when the boot screen comes up although the top one (most recently installed) is always D. Well, I'm done for the evening-I'll keep you posted.Mark

Correct me if im wroung but having FS on a second drive with a second XP installation will also mean that their wont be a whole host of other garbage programmes running in the background and slowing the whole thing down as happens with your every day version.I also would like to know if their are any problems loading XP twice from your original discs.It would be interesting to know the differences in frame rates on the two versions of FS9?Thanks for your advicePeter

>I was thinkin' today..I have a 2nd HD in my computer that I'm>not really using all that much (DV capture every once in a>while). Is there any advantage to installing a separate copy>of XP and FS9 on that drive or is this a waste of time? It>would be nice to have an 'untouched by updates' copy running>on my machine. Also, does XP detect two OSes and ask you which>one you want to use?I have THREE versions of FS9 running on ONE hard drive with ZERO problems...1) FS9 (full install with all add-ons)2) FS9 (full install, VIRGIN)3) FS9 (partial install, with ONE add-on at a time for testing)Simply rename your existing FS9 root folder, and install FS9 as usual.Rename the 'new install' and then restore the proper name to your previous installation.Create a new 'Shortcut' to the copy of FS9.exe in the new installation.

daveg4otu: Thanks so much for how to change the install name. Just as I said, it's helpful folks like you that make this hobby so enjoyable. I have always been an Anglophile, ever since I saw the movie "Battle of Britain" when it came out. The scenes of those magnificent Spits and Hurris flying over the patchwork countryside cemented my love of all things aviation at a young age. I purchased the DVD and watch it frequently still. I like to think if I had been around then I would have been an Eagle Squadron pilot. I don't know about you, but I am quite excited about UBI Soft developing their Battle of Britain sim. I might have to break down and get a CH stick and single throttle control to go with my Ch yoke and pedals and soon to arrive throttle quadrant. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to revisit your wonderful website. Thanks so much again

If you have windows XP there is not much reason to have a dual boot system. Since that is very much what the administrative accounts is for. You can have different logins that uses different settings, services and such.As for harddrives and how to set it up it depends on the speed of your harddrives.Me I have a WD Raptor and a slower WD 80 GB JB 8 mb cache harddrive.I have win xp and FS 2004 on the faster harddrive then I have the swapfile furthest out on my slower harddrive. That way my harddrives head readers don

Peter Sidoli: First, thank you so much for all your contributions to make FlightSim what it is today. Flying your great Seneca in the '98 version of FlightSim enabled me to enjoy many hours in front of that great, crisp cockpit and sweet-handling plane.To try to help with your inquiry, my second installation of XP went without incident, with the exception that I had to reinstall the driver for my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. As far as the "garbage" running in the background, there is quite a bit on an unaltered install, but using the advice in the forum's XP teaks section and Black Viper's "supertweak" profile I am only running about 8 services on a stock FS9 install. No problem loading the second XP, just a standard time out notification after 30 days I think. From what it says one must make a simple phone call to make the new install permanent. I have not done that as yet, still have 10 days left. Perhaps another could chime in here with their experiences on this matter. As far as frame rates go, I don't really have the inclination to do any kind of benchmark tests. I just put the framerate counter on and fiddle with it from there. I know, not very professional, but what my eye sees is the important thing. The biggest difference for me between my original and "supertweak" FS9 is the general overall smoothness of the new install, plus the occasional dramatic increase in frame rates when it comes to flying through "busy" weather. As I said, I am using the default clouds on ultra high settings with most other sliders set to low. I also have the highest setting set for the virtual cockpit gauges. Hope this helps.

Fr. Bill: And you, sir, and your Eaglesoft Team, are actually the main reason I did this in the first place. Talking to a proud new owner of your spectacular Citation II SP551. I was curious to see how it would do on a fresh install. Having a HUGE amount of fun flying this bird. Getting ready to install the Tyrol Air ambulance livery and do some flying around Innsbruck! Thanks for a great product!