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duckbilled

I don't want to reinstall, but I think I have to. Please advise

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I switched over to v4 a couple weeks ago from FSX. The v4 install is working great. Performance is far better than I expected and I finally feel that I am getting the most our of my 3.5 year old system. I'm very happy except for the following:

During the v4 install it directed me to install on my c drive. I just bought a 1TB SSD for a dedicated v4 drive, so I definitely didn't want to do that. I directed the installer to my F drive (SSD). To my surprise, the installer did not create a main V4 folder. I dumped all of the folder/files right on to the f drive. For example, I now have F:\Addon Scenery, F:\SimObjects... I wanted F:\P3DV4\Addon Scenery, F:\P3DV4\SimObjects... Sure, I may have missed a step during the installation, but this does seem like an issue with a lot of installers. Some create a main folder for the somewhere and other dump all of the files into the path you provide.

Anyway, this didn't see like a big issue at the time, but as I starter installing add ons, I realized that the common practice is to install outside of the p3d folder. I did start installing some scenery to a directory on my FSX drive (Velociraptor), but I came to the conclusion last night that I may need to fix this before I get too deep. I'll end up with a 1TB drive that is restricted to one directory, but I won't need all of that space, because I am installing everything outside of that directory

Should I reinstall, and if so what is the best way to do it. I was reading through another thread, but I didn't want to hijack it. Should I just run the setup exe and select uninstall? Will that give me a clean slate to reinstall, or will I also need to delete folder here and there. Keep in mind that I also have lots of FTX, UTL, AS16 and ProATCx installed. 

I really hate to trash a rock solid install for something like this, but it would be better to do it now than later down the road, I guess.

Thanks for listening and for the advice.

 


MSFS Premium Deluxe Edition; Windows 11 Pro, I9-9900k; Asus Maximus XI Hero; Asus TUF RTX3080TI; 32GB G.Skill Ripjaw DDR4 3600; 2X Samsung 1TB 970EVO; NZXT Kraken X63; Seasonic Prime PX-1000, LG 48" C1 Series OLED, Honeycomb Yoke & TQ, CH Rudder Pedals, Logitech G13 Gamepad 



 

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There are some ways to get around it but you will have far fewer headaches if you just do a reinstall.

When doing a custom install, you MUST select the root folder for the install. If all you selected was F:/ - then that's where the installer will put it.

 

Uninstall P3D using Control Panel. Unless an addon is something that installs outside of P3D, I'd delete that too. Create a folder on your F: drive - say P3DV4 (or whatever you wish) - then during the install specify f:/P3DV4 as your install folder and you're good to go. Reinstall you addons and for any that you didn't delete, try reinstalling just to clean up the links. For me, I'd uninstall and delete EVERYTHING and start fresh.

As I said, there are other ways to approach this, like symbolic links, editing the registry etc *BUT* if you make one little mistake, you'll trash the install anyway. Bite the bullet and just do a fresh install.

Vic

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13 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

When doing a custom install, you MUST select the root folder for the install

Precisely what I did.

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Unfortunately saying 'select the root folder' seems like saying select the root of the drive F:\. I would have stated it more clearly:

 

We must create a new folder for our P3D custom install location.

We can make a new parent folder in the root folder of our new drive F:\ for example in Explorer we right-click in the drive right-hand pane and choose New Folder from the popup menu. We can insert the folder name there or we can right-click on New Folder and rename it to what we want:

F:\P3Dv4

We point the P3D installer there.

 

Or we might want a parent for all our flight sims on that drive:

F:\FS

we can add all our sim install locations

F:\FS\P3Dv4

F:\FS\FSX

we can make a parent folder for scenery and so on:

F:\FS\Scenery

or we can keep addons to a parent for scenery and aircraft for example:

F:\Addons\Scenery

F:\Addons\Aircraft

 

What we do is keep the number of root folders on a drive to a minimum, but subfolders of root folders we can have as many as we like.

 


Steve Waite: Engineer at codelegend.com

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1 minute ago, SteveW said:

Unfortunately saying 'select the root folder' seems like saying select the root of the drive F:\. I would have stated it more clearly:

 

We must create a new folder for our P3D custom install location.

We can make a new parent folder in the root folder of our new drive F:\ for example in Explorer we right-click in the drive right-hand pane and choose New Folder from the popup menu. We can insert the folder name there or we can right-click on New Folder and rename it to what we want:

F:\P3Dv4

We point the P3D installer there.

 

Or we might want a parent for all our flight sims on that drive:

F:\FS

we can add all our sim install locations

F:\FS\P3Dv4

F:\FS\FSX

we can make a parent folder for scenery and so on:

F:\FS\Scenery

or we can keep addons to a parent for scenery and aircraft for example:

F:\Addons\Scenery

F:\Addons\Aircraft

 

What we do is keep the number of root folders on a drive to a minimum, but subfolders of root folders we can have as many as we like.

 

Yup, That's exactly what I plan to do. Some installers create the folder for you (what I was expecting). P3D does not. Scenery installer are all over the place on this.

Where/what is the P3D control Panel? is it just a matter of running Setup_Prepar3D.exe?

Thanks for the help everyone!

 


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33 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

Some installers create the folder for you (what I was expecting). P3D does not

 

During the Install process you will have the Option to Install Prepar3D to a different location, You can achieve this by clicking Options and Create and Name a New Folder and Install Prepar3D to the location of your choice 

For Example:  C\Prepar3D v4...D\Prepar3D v4...E\Prepar3D v4...
 

33 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

Where/what is the P3D control Panel? is it just a matter of running Setup_Prepar3D.exe?

 

Yes you can run the Setup_Prepar3D.exe again and click Uninstall 

Or you can Navigate to your Control Panel  "programs and features"  Right Click on  Prepar3D v4 Academic \ Professional  Click Uninstall 

34850622610_cb1cf9f220_o.png

 

 


 

Please see here for a Guide to Uninstall/Deactivate Prepar3D v4 

Also here is some hints and tips to Download and Install Prepar3D v4 

 


 

 

 

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Off topic, Elaine, have you got one of your superlative Guides to Install MT6 in P3Dv4?

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Hello Rick

The below link will cover Prepar3D v3 & v4.  Both methods are Included,  the old way and the add-on.xml method 

The add-on.xml file is recommended for best results the link is at the top of the Topic  

MyTraffic 6a Prepar3D v3 & v4


 

 

 

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Thanks, Elaine. At my work computer, so will follow your Guide when I get home. I've just abandoned FSX-SE, hopefully, for good, and moved to P3Dv4. So, once more, it is a long-haul to re-install all the compatible add-ons, such as airports  when they are v4 updated. Meantime, if I can get MT6 up and running, then at least I'd have some Ai traffic to keep me company.

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5 hours ago, SteveW said:

Unfortunately saying 'select the root folder' seems like saying select the root of the drive F:\. I would have stated it more clearly:

You are SO right Steve - thanx for catching it. Sometimes what I think and what I type are not the same. :blink:

Vic


 

RIG#1 - 7700K 5.0g ROG X270F 3600 15-15-15 - EVGA RTX 3090 1000W PSU 1- 850G EVO SSD, 2-256G OCZ SSD, 1TB,HAF942-H100 Water W1064Pro
40" 4K Monitor 3840x2160 - AS16, ASCA, GEP3D, UTX, Toposim, ORBX Regions, TrackIR
RIG#2 - 3770K 4.7g Asus Z77 1600 7-8-7 GTX1080ti DH14 850W 2-1TB WD HDD,1tb VRap, Armor+ W10 Pro 2 - HannsG 28" Monitors
 

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27 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

You are SO right Steve - thanx for catching it. Sometimes what I think and what I type are not the same. :blink:

Vic

Thanks again for the help. I know what was meant:biggrin: I realized my mistake right after the installation finished. It wasn't until I realized that everyone was installing addons outside of the v4 folder did I think it could become an issue. It wasn't until the middle of the night last night that I realized that I needed to do something about it. Yes, I woke up in the middle of the night realizing that I needed to reinstall.


MSFS Premium Deluxe Edition; Windows 11 Pro, I9-9900k; Asus Maximus XI Hero; Asus TUF RTX3080TI; 32GB G.Skill Ripjaw DDR4 3600; 2X Samsung 1TB 970EVO; NZXT Kraken X63; Seasonic Prime PX-1000, LG 48" C1 Series OLED, Honeycomb Yoke & TQ, CH Rudder Pedals, Logitech G13 Gamepad 



 

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