FSX and In Preparing for P3d V4

[macpilot 22]

I have P3D v3 installed and FSX. I would like to copy FSX over to a second drive. Then delete FSX from the first drive. I'm not uninstalling FSX just moving it to make room on the first drive for P3D v4. This way I could copy FSX back to the original drive. If I wanted to at a later date. Which I doubt I would do.

 

Thanks to all who reply

 

Bill McCracken

[nealmac 260]

You can't just "copy" an installed application to another drive. Well you can, but it won't work. It's not just about moving files around. There are many registry entries and file paths that also will need to be addressed. The only safe way to do it, is to uninstall it and then install it again on the new drive.

[Piotr007 166]

19 hours ago, macpilot said:

I have P3D v3 installed and FSX. I would like to copy FSX over to a second drive. Then delete FSX from the first drive. I'm not uninstalling FSX just moving it to make room on the first drive for P3D v4. This way I could copy FSX back to the original drive. If I wanted to at a later date. Which I doubt I would do.

 

Thanks to all who reply

 

Bill McCracken

 

 

[phmcr 93]

Follow the link Peter sent. I did just that and it works. Ofcourse some additional programs you use may need to be pointed again but FSX as a whole works.

 

[macpilot 22]

Thanks to all.

Neal I understand the registry issue. I never intended to run FSX from the new drive. Just be able to move it back to the original drive. If I decided I wanted to use it again. Not sure but moving it  should not effect the registry if I don't intend to try and run it from the new drive.

I did make a copy of the information in Peter's link.

 

Bill McCracken

[nealmac 260]

Fair enough, Bill. Sorry, I probably didn't read your post close enough. I just assumed you'd want to use it on the new drive.

[Noel 4,499]

Bill,

Forgive me if you've already thought about this option but it's something I strongly believe in having done it ever since I started using fast SSDs over HDDs, and it isn't really related to your question.   What I do is install OS & sim on one dedicated drive, and that and the sim's add ons are all that lives on that particular SSD.  I don't do anything but sim on that dedicated drive:   no internet browsing, no Office program, no nuttin' but sim/addons/utilities related to the sim.  The benefit of this approach is that one can image the entire drive, or clone it to another drive for a solid simple back up.  Buy enough storage for the sim's useful lifespan and it's very straightforward.  Because of this approach I don't need any bloatware, no A/V or anti malware software, etc.  My sense is I don't suffer from performance issues because of the way fast SSDs function compared to HDDs.

[Jiri Kocman 20]

Move your FSX folder to new location and make symbolic link for that folder to original location, It works for me mostly with anything.

[macpilot 22]

Noel,

Are you saying that your computer is dedicated to FS only with 2 SSD drives?  Or do you have more drives but for FS you boot from that drive. Then boot from another drive for other applications.

 

Bill McCracken

[Noel 4,499]

55 minutes ago, macpilot said:

Noel,

Are you saying that your computer is dedicated to FS only with 2 SSD drives?  Or do you have more drives but for FS you boot from that drive. Then boot from another drive for other applications.

 

Bill McCracken

I have 4 drives in the box, two SSDs, two older HDDs.   The first SSD has Win 7 SP1 w/ select updates--it is dedicated to P3D 3.x plus all of its addons and associated utilities including ASUS' overclocking utility, etc.  The second SSD has Win 7 SP1, same install disk, and a few games on it that I play, plus MS office and other odds n ends.   The 1st HDD is just a place to save data in, including backup copies of P3D stuff and everything else I've accumulated since the last build 4.2y ago.  The 2nd older HDD is an exact clone of the first SSD using Paragon Disk Manager Suite, and I do the clone process maybe every 4 or 6 months depending on if I have new content in P3D to save.  In the past year or so since upgrading to P3D 3.0 I've needed to do a complete restore off of that drive twice due to problems caused by one or another major change to P3D that I couldn't untangle, so could fully restore back to default since the last clone.  Both SSDs are 500Gb Samsung 840 or 850s and as stated, both have their own OS, so this is a triple-boot system.   I can boot to the clone of P3D since it is an exact bootable clone of the primary P3D SSD, but there is no reason to so I don't.

If I am going to browse beyond something like a simple log in to Avsim, or Lockheed Martin, or OrbxDirect I will always log into the non P3D SSD for general computing, download something and antivirus check it on that 2nd SSD, then save it to the 1st SSD.  This way my P3D can remain very free of any bloatware.  Defender is disabled, etc.  I don't believe there is a significant advantage since fast SSDs appeared w/ putting OS and sim on separate drives for performance reasons.   I enjoy ultra smooth P3D performance w/in the limitations of my 4.2y old system.

If and when I decide to buy and install P3D V4 I will pick up another SSD and dedicate that drive to V4, once again w/ its own OS, either Win 10 or 7.  Likely 7 unless LM decides to start exploiting DirectX 12.   I'm in no hurry for V4 as very clearly it offers almost nothing meaningfully better for me.  Once the dust clears and all my utilities and addons work I may jump in.  If I decide to go w/ XP11 or XP12, same same, dedicated OS/sim.  Very clean.

[macpilot 22]

Noel,

 

I like your concept. Correct me if I'm wrong. You would need to purchase a new version of the OS for each drive that has an OS on it. For me to reconfigure my FS computer I would need an SSD drive, Install Windows 10 (My current OS) on it  and reinstall in my case P3D Version 3.4 and addons to the dedicated SSD drive. 

Of course I could wait till I feel comfortable with P3D Version 4 and start with it on a separate SSD drive.

 

You have given me something to think about.

 

Thank You

Bill McCracken