Best Dual Boot Drive Configuration

[Radial9 69]

Giving consideration on how best to set up disk space for best performance and ease of use in a two OS system. I’m starting from ground zero, new hardware and software. The end result will be the ability to boot into either Win7Pro for FSX or Win10 1703 for P3Dv4. For storage I have a M.2 1TB and a 2TB magnetic drive. 32G of ram. I also have the option of putting a 128G SSD drive on the back of the MB, but I may not go there. Still undecided. That’s what this post is helping me to decide.

From everything I read the consensus is to install the OS’s in the fastest drive in the system. Mixed opinions whether or not to install the flightsims on that same fastest drive, the M.2 or to have P3D and FSX on their own separate drives. It appears all my current and future scenery files can reside on the 2TB drive along with data.

If I understand the rationale correctly you want your OS to boot and run as fast as possible. I understand further from reading various sources that the flightsim software is going to pretty much run in ram and only fetch scenery from the magnetic drive as needed , so having the flightsim on  bit slower drive is not that big of a deal.

Do I have this thinking correct? I guess the issue is should I have two separate partitions on the 1TB M.2 SSD drive or have a separate 128G SSD drive for Win 7 and FSX when I set up a dual boot system.

Does it matter?  Any thoughts appreciated!

On a side note, I really believe FSX still has a very long life in front of it. I believe addons for FSX will drop in price over the next year, or maybe sooner, as the new 64bit P3D product rolls out and competition gets better. With a good system, I still think there is years of enjoyment left in a FSX build.

My thinking is the fight to get FSX on the computer might go much smoother with Win7Pro on its own drive.

Who knows… I might even give X Plane 11 a look.

Thoughts, experience and advice much appreciated.

Cheers,

Radial9

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Don't bother dual booting.  Just virtualize Windows 7 inside of Windows 10 if you encounter a scenario that necessitates it.  In reality, such scenarios are likely to be few and far between as even the ancient Level D 767 was recently updated to support Windows 10.  To put it bluntly, dual booting is an archaic technique that no one who is up to date on technology or works in the industry uses.  

[Radial9 69]

From my research reading the host OS, in this case Win10, handles all driver configurations from anything requested from a virtual Win7. This can prove to be VERY problamatic. Is this wrong?

 

[vortex681 806]

Why do you want to use two different versions of Windows? It's just adding an extra layer of complexity which could produce more problems than you hope it may resolve. Windows 10 runs FSX well for the vast majority of people (me included), particularly if you're carrying out a clean install of the OS (that is, not an in-place upgrade from an earlier version of Windows). You just need to ensure that all of your drivers (graphics, sound etc.) are Windows 10 compatible.

With regards to using separate drives, the old wisdom with hard drives was that it was best to have FSX/P3D on its own drive to reduce fragmentation of the files and so speed up loading and access. With SSDs, the drives don't need defragging and are so much faster than hard drives anyway that there's no problem (other than perhaps running out of space) with having the OS and the sims on the same drive.

[Radial9 69]

Thank you for the reply. I have been looking into this for some time  now. Doing a lot of reading trying to come to the best solution. As I mentioned I have been out of the hobby for a few years and am trying to come back up to speed. I ran across 8 to 10 different folks postings over the past few years who had issues trying to install FSX onto Win 10. Can't remmeber the exact numbers now, but it's something like a 1628 install error. The disks would not install. I have  good copy of FSX Deluxe and reg key here.

From your readings over thepast few years are FSX installs in Win10 commonplace? I don't have any preference, other than success, either way. If I run into issues I can always go with plan B. That's why I'm here with crumpled up aviator hat in hand, trying to forge a path to getting back up and running.

Appreciate the dialog gentlmen. I'm not pigheaded nor biased one way or another. Just trying to figure out what is going to work, and what may present problems.

Cheers!

[TechguyMaxC 516]

You must be referencing *original* FSX, which there is no reason to run at this point.  Just download Steam and buy FSX SE (Steam Edition).  Surely you can afford $25 to get a Windows 10 compatible version of FSX when buying a $3000+ PC?

[vortex681 806]

Whilst I think that people are successfully running the boxed version in Windows 10, I agree that FSX:SE is probably the best route to a trouble-free install in Windows 10. It requires no potentially problematic activation once installed and contains a number of improvements over the boxed version (see: https://fsxinsider.com/fsx-steam-edition-and-boxed-fsx-what-is-the-difference/). It's good value, particularly if you can get it in one of Steam's frequent sales.