35 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I agree but wasn't he asking about an external drive presumably connected via USB3? How do the speeds of that compare to internal SSD? Slow, very slow or take the dog for a walk?

I didn't see USB3 mentioned.

The speed comparison is a hard question to answer because the actual bandwidths experienced on SATA II/III, nVME, and USB 2/3 are rarely anything close to the much-touted theoretical maximums.  nVME, the current fast SSD standard, is theoretically ~8x faster than SATA III, which is theoretically 20% faster than USB3, etc.  Many computers, especially those a few years old, do not have native USB3 capability in the primary chipset, but rather have a third-party controller chip added to the motherboard, and those controllers generally do not perform like USB3 native to the Intel chipset.  Then there are also questions whether an external SSD connected via a USB interface can be managed by the OS trim function necessary to maintain write performance and minimize the effects of write amplification.

But keep in mind that all HDDs are not created equal, either.  I've seen folks using el-cheapo 5400 rpm WD "Green" drives in their PCs that have horrible seek time and throughput performance...a much different experience than a 7200 rpm WD Caviar Black with 64 or 128 MB of hardware cache.  So I'd add to my initial recommendation to use a good 7200 rpm HDD, not just the cheapest one on the shelf, as it can make a significant difference in loading times.

On 11/7/2018 at 9:06 AM, vc10man said:

Probably did not phrase it correctly, but what I meant to say was that I have just spent 3 days downloading all my Orbx purchases now that I have a larger drive, but wanted to ideally know how to create a backup folder, as slow broadband speeds takes ages to download

There's a little link visible in the FTXCentral window, something like "Installation Options" that will open another window that allows you to save a backup copy of the install files during installation.  So if you've already installed, you've missed the boat, I'm afraid.  Not to worry, though, in the ORBX forums they describe how you can back up your ORBX scenery by copying the relevant folders from your P3D root folder to a backup device.  The tricky part is you have to also go find any elevation correction files it installed in scenery\world\scenery and save those too. 

Regards

43 minutes ago, w6kd said:

There's a little link visible in the FTXCentral window, something like "Installation Options" that will open another window that allows you to save a backup copy of the install files during installation.  So if you've already installed, you've missed the boat, I'm afraid.  Not to worry, though, in the ORBX forums they describe how you can back up your ORBX scenery by copying the relevant folders from your P3D root folder to a backup device.  The tricky part is you have to also go find any elevation correction files it installed in scenery\world\scenery and save those too. 

Regards

Thanks, Bob. I followed that FTX Central option but could not find where to save only where the Downloads went to instead of %User%/AppData/Temp, or something like that  i.e. a drive I had designated. But as you say, I missed the boat. However, I did find the Orbx folder in the root P3D----85Gb worth of their downloads, and bought an external USB3 drive today to take care of it all.That way, I have the backups.

2 minutes ago, vc10man said:

Thanks, Bob. I followed that FTX Central option but could not find where to save only where the Downloads went to instead of %User%/AppData/Temp, or something like that  i.e. a drive I had designated. But as you say, I missed the boat. However, I did find the Orbx folder in the root P3D----85Gb worth of their downloads, and bought an external USB3 drive today to take care of it all.That way, I have the backups.

You want to go find the thread in the ORBX forums about this...one more important thing is the terrain.cfg file modifications that ORBX makes.  I'l pulling this all up from memory...so for a more complete and (hopefully) fool-proof backup plan it'd be smart to read what they said.  There's nothing worse than finding you need to resort to a backup and that you're short a critical missing link.

Regards

 

1 hour ago, w6kd said:

I didn't see USB3 mentioned.

Nor me but until the OP supplies more info on his setup I’m rightly or wrongly assuming it’s a laptop so USB3 would be the most likely connection for an external device.

Time for me to bow out of this as I can’t really add any more.

1 hour ago, w6kd said:

You want to go find the thread in the ORBX forums about this...one more important thing is the terrain.cfg file modifications that ORBX makes.  I'l pulling this all up from memory...so for a more complete and (hopefully) fool-proof backup plan it'd be smart to read what they said.  There's nothing worse than finding you need to resort to a backup and that you're short a critical missing link.

Regards

 

Thanks, Bob. Will heed and do.

Bob, had a look at the Orbx Forum as suggested, but the topic re: SSD, backup, was so vague and obscure, that I could not even make head or tail of it. I am not interested in the vagaries of FSX backups, etc. All I am interested in is backing up my newly-installed Orbx P3D FTX files.

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 8:57 AM, costamesa said:

Hmm..how do you mean?

Only that an SSD has no mechanical parts and is very light. You can just use double sided foam tape to stick it almost anywhere inside the case - no need to shock mount it in one of the HDD (or 2.5") slots it you don't have room. As long as you can get a SATA and power cable to it you're good.