Moving my FS folder to an external HD

[Walouigi 1]

Good day to all,

I have noticed that my local HD is getting almost full as I have my FS9 and FSX installed on my C drive.

I am looking to buy a new external HD and connected to my PC and wanted to move my FS folders to the external drive.

Can you please advise what are the steps to take before or after the move so I don't get problem when flying.

Now my set up is C:\FS9 and C:\FSX. Lots of add-ons are also installed.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards

[dogtrack 18]

Save yourself some grief....you will be very disappointed with the end result.  Add another internal disc if you have the room and forget about external.

[michelair 14]

+1

[CrownCityMisfits 58]

Since you hope to have your sim run properly with lots of addons, you have 1 option, in my opinion:

 

Uninstall addons, uninstall FSX and FS9, then reinstall everything on a new 1TB (at least) internal drive.

[UK_Squiff 1]

Have to agree with everyone else. I've tried copying the folders..using software too...the result?...crap.

Take the plunge...don't be lazy...just swallow it

[PIC007 82]

You don't mention your HD size, FS size, puter specs etc. If you have a puter with USB3 and/or an ESata connection, and if you have a lot of photo scenery, you could off load those to the external and leave FS where it is.

 

It all depends on your system, but as others have said, the best way is internal.

[Walouigi 1]

Hi There,

Thank you all for your reply, much appreciated.

Actually my current HD is 1TB, and the new HD is WD 3 TB I think it is USB 3. I still have about 25% available on my current. But I read that more than that it will slow my system.

That's why I have decide to move FS to the external HD.

MY FS  both 9 and X are about 500G. I do have lots of scenery and planes as well as AI.

So based on your suggestion I should move every thing else except the FS folder.

Ok will try that, and thanks for your feedback.

Regards

Hani

[cianpars 1,165]

The problem with an external drive is that the transfer rate through USB is far too slow for fsx to function properly - you will get blurries and stutters.

 

If you try moving fsx to another drive, your registry entries will all point to the wrong place too and disable some of your addons.

 

Take the advice given above and add a new internal drive and reinstall.  Even better if you can afford it, get yourself a SSD.

 

IAN

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

If you do get a new (internal) HDD or SSD,  you can actually move your entire FSX folder to the new drive, and afterwards run the free Flight1 registry fixer program to reset the registry pointers.  Could save you a lot of effort..

 

http://www.flight1software.com/files/FS_Registry_Repair.exe

[cianpars 1,165]

I've used those fixers on FSX and FS9 before and they do the job.

 

When I installed an SSD I simply cloned the old drive and renamed the new drive to the name of the old drive with Acronis.  Worked like a dream with no glitches at all.

 

IAN

[W2DR 1,860]

The problem with an external drive is that the transfer rate through USB is far too slow for fsx to function properly - you will get blurries and stutters.

 

If you try moving fsx to another drive, your registry entries will all point to the wrong place too and disable some of your addons.

 

Take the advice given above and add a new internal drive and reinstall.  Even better if you can afford it, get yourself a SSD.

 

IAN

 

Not the case at all. I'm running FSX and P3D on a 10,000 rpm 1TB WD Velociraptor mounted in an external Anker USB3 HDD docking station and I cannot tell any difference vs. an internal drive. No blurries, no stutters, no problems at all. And as far as the SSD goes, I was running both sims on a 500GB Samsung SSD before the Velociraptor and , other than initial load times on startup, there is absolutely no difference in performance. Try the external option. I think you'll like it.

 

Doug

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

A couple of key things here... 10K RPM,  USB3, etc

 

That is not an ordinary "external 1 TB drive"...

 

Ultimately a wire is a wire.. but performance depends on may things.. most of them expensive :rolleyes:

[cianpars 1,165]

Note your comments Doug.  Would be interesting to know what read and write rates you are getting with these drives.

 

IAN

[Walouigi 1]

Oh Gosh,

I am so confused now, but thanks for your comments, My actual external HD was shipped and I was planning to return and buy a new internal HD.

So Do at least I try and use the Flight1 registry repair, or just go for the internal.

The problem with the SSD they re not as big as the reg HD and are very expensive.

Thanks

[fullmetal02 23]

You can clone your drive, and likely will not have any issues. I cloned my drive and it worked like a charm with no need to fix registries.