I've been wondering if its much better to move FSX into an external drive. I have one reason already, and that's if my computer gets hacked or something terrible happens to it.

 

Is performance a key issue when installed to the computer's drive? I was thinking if FSX would run better on an external because the whole drive is just dedicated to FSX.

 

 

Any other reasons why FSX should be on an external?

If your PC  gets hacked and you have to start all over again., ten all sim related registry entries, other DRM and security features would be lost anyway.

The FSX folder is not the only one you have to backup, remember that there are other simulator folders in C: and in AppData. (maybe other sites in the HD  :ph34r:)

 

FSX or any other disk read intensive program will run slower from an external hard drive, even if it is a USB 3, SATA III with adapter or an eSATA

 

IMO it would be better if you keep a timely disk image of Your PC and backups in the external HD, then if if you get hacked you just do a restore.

Also keep all your downloads and purchasing info in an external HD. 

Yep, FSX read times will be significantly lower if it is on an external drive.  Routine backup's of internal drives is probably the best route.

 

I agree with Kabronicus, you will be far better off using the external drive for a system image. You can't restore just FSX from an external drive if the "C:" drive is lost.

 

That said, if you really want to move FSX to an external drive anyway I've tested it on several external drive configurations and have seen no difference in performance (other than initial load times) on any of them. This includes (all SATA 3) 10000 and 7200 RPM drives, an SSD, and I even tried them in a USB3 docking station. They all worked just fine.

 

Doug