I need your advice

I am unable to use FTX Central to download and install Netherlands TrueEarth because there is simply not enough room on my C Drive for a temporary download or to install on my dedicated P3D (H) Drive.

SO

Therefore this afternoon I purchased 2 new SSDs and am having a technician install them tomorrow morning as follows:

 

C Drive is going to be cloned from the existing 240GB SSD to a new Samsung 860 EVO 500GN SSD.

AND

400GB+ of P3Dv4.2 will be copied from the existing 480GB SSD to a new Samsung 860 EVO1TB SSD.

 

Should this work? Will P3D accept the new drive it is named and lettered the same (and relocated to the same drive slot)?

Please give me your advice as I have never done anything like this before, and tomorrow comes.... ah, tomorrow morning!

Kind regards,

Spirit Flyer

Stephen

Hi Stephen

Why not just install the two new SSD's and leave everything else as is? The product can be installed to another drive and I would install it to the new Samsung 1TB SSD.  Then, with Lorby_Si's AddonOrganizer, create an addon.xml.  I have moved all of my Orbx scenery from the scenery.cfg to the AddonOrganizer.  The only problem being that if there is ever an update to the product, FTX Central will want to install it in the P3D Folder so you will want to redirect to the 1TB drive.  FTX Central will also add the entry back into the scenery.cfg too but you can remove that by opening the AddonOrganizer and removing any duplicates. 

I do not know what is going to happen if you moved P3D directory over to the new 1TB drive, rename the drive that P3D was located on, and then rename the new 1TB drive as Drive H so your registry will still see P3D.  The tech that installs your new SSD's should be able to give you the proper advice.

Best regards,

Jim

It didn't look like anyone was going to respond to your questions so decided to quickly respond as I know there will be some who will say, "Jim is giving you the wrong advice! You don't need to do that!! Here's how to do it.  Really simple." 

It works every time!   But I really do think my suggestions will work.  It is what I have done in the past.  My only concern is security.  Some developers use hardware to identify whether their program is being copied on other hardware so it may get confused if it sees it is no longer on a 480GB SSD.

Hi Stephen-

I see no problems with this. I'll provide the means for you to create a symbolic link on your bigger, secondary drive when I get home from work. In this way, you could have kept your 250 drive and download everything to just the larger drive, fixing the problem you currently have. This solves the problem of enormous downloads, whatever the source and very easy to do. I did this quite some time ago.

If possible, go Pro on the Samsungs. I've been running 500/1TB Pros for quite some time now. Don't get the blurries that you've undoubtedly heard about in these here parts :>)

Mark

Edited April 26, 20188 yr by newtie
sp

Hi Jim,

I have 6 drives so my MB is maxed out so I am removing a couple older ones to make way for the new (ancient 750 GB drive and 120 GB SSD). Both existing C Drive (240 SSD) and my primary FS drive (480 GB SSD) are full and have really slowed down with wear and use anyway, so they will be able to find new life as back up storage units. I also have a 1TB and 2TD mechanical drives installed for storage.

The new units should be fast and leave lots of room to spare. I am just hoping for a smooth transition.

Kind regards,

 

26 minutes ago, newtie said:

Hi Stephen-

I see no problems with this. I'll provide the means for you to create a symbolic link on your bigger, secondary drive when I get home from work. In this way, you could have kept your 250 drive and download everything to just the larger drive, fixing the problem you currently have. This solves the problem of enormous downloads, whatever the source and very easy to do. I did this quite some time ago.

If possible, go Pro on the Samsungs. I've been running 500/1TB Pros for quite some time now. Don't get the blurries that you've undoubtedly heard about in these here parts :>)

Mark

Thank you Mark.

Bought the EVO's on sale so I will make do this time without the Pro's. :)

43 minutes ago, Jim Young said:

My only concern is security.  Some developers use hardware to identify whether their program is being copied on other hardware so it may get confused if it sees it is no longer on a 480GB SSD.

That is my greatest concern. When P3D sees a different drive I wonder if it might think it is being pirated. The thing is, it is so highly modified, filled with add-ons, I shutter to think of what it would take to give a new fresh install...

Edited April 26, 20188 yr by SpiritFlyer

I just did this, my SSD ran out of room so i bought a new one, copied the entire p3d folder into another hard drive, installed the new ssd and kept the drive letter the same as the old one, moved the p3d folder onto the new drive and it works as though nothing has changed.

 

Regards

 

Matt Tank

26 minutes ago, SpiritFlyer said:

Thank you Mark.

Bought the EVO's on sale so I will make do this time without the Pro's. 🙂

You'll be fine with that. Just a suggestion.

Done the same thing several times, Stephen - as long as you keep the drive letters and clone your OS drive, you should have no problems.

Vic

Good evening gentlemen,

 

Thank you for your great advice. I installed the new drives and cloned and copied as planned. Looks and works great!

Much obliged. 🤠

 

Kind regards,

Spirit Flyer (Stephen)

To paraphrase an old television show

 

Don't you just LOVE it when a plan comes together?

Enjoy,

 

Vic