Backing up ahead of new version update

[honanhal 1,420]

Hi all,

I'm getting ready to take the plunge and update to 4.4 (as soon as FSL makes their Airbuses compatible), and I wanted to make sure I knew how to back up my addons/sceneries so that I could basically hit the ground running with them. It's my first time doing anything other than a simple client upgrade so this is all new to me.

(A disclaimer: yes, I know that the better thing to do would be to start from zero, deleting the P3D folders left after the uninstall and then installing everything from scratch. I have a full-time job and that is just not going to happen, so I'm prepared to take the risks this shortcut entails.)

I know the Lorby tool exports a "scenery configuration backup" which appears to contain all addon-method sceneries and addons as well as non-scenery addons using the addon.xml method (e.g. FS Labs). Can I rely on the built-in "restore" functionality to get everything back after a full reinstall? (As I won't be deleting the addon and other folders after uninstalling 4.3, everything those files point to should still be there, with the exception of anything that modifies the default files - e.g. Orbx - right?)

Otherwise, I should make backups of my Prepar3D.cfg, dll.xml, and exe.xml, right? Any other files I need to back up or other things I need to think about?

Thanks in advance for any help!

James

[Bob Scott 7,721]

It's going to depend on what you have installed.

You probably don't want to just restore config files en masse with the Lorby SI Addon Manager, as some of the post-update files may have had v4.4-specific entries added to them, particularly Prepar3D.cfg, and possibly some other important ones like terrain.cfg, cameras.cfg etc.

Any add-on that replaces stock P3D files would have to be reinstalled, as the P3D reinstallation will restore all the default files.  That means a full install of ORBX FTX Global and Trees, if you use those.  Also, many compatibility mods for airports involve disabling bgls (Orbx or other) and the reinstallation process and/or running FTX Central will reincarnate all those disabled files, so they have to be disabled again.  If you're using Orbx OpenLC, you'll also need to do a forced migration in FTX Central. 

I would start by making a full system backup so you can drop back five and punt back to your working 4.3 setup if it gets too messy.  Save a snapshot of your v4.3 config files by using the "Create Backup" feature in Lorby SI Addon Manager--that creates a zip file with a fairly extensive set of copies of your important config files.  I use a system backup program (OO Diskimage) that allows me to mount the backup image files as read-only drives, so I can go back and retrieve or inspect things from the old config if needed after the update.  After the uninstall/reinstall of P3D, then take a snapshot of the complete configuration with the Lorby tool, so you'll have safe backup of all the important config files in their default states.  Then I would do some inspection work to see what in the Prepar3D.cfg, terrain.cfg, simobjects.cfg etc files might have changed from my archived 4.3 versions, with special attention to new settings.  Then it's a choice of whether to do a mass restore followed by replacing any individual config files that need manual editing or update, or a file-by-file inspection and copy process to move config files over (after making safe copies of the defaults).

This is probably a 90% solution...there is always some broken glass on the floor after one of these upgrades.  I keep an extensive log on a spreadsheet detailing my builds, and so I review all the mods and compatibility fixes etc that I did in the original build and subsequent updates to see what might need a closer look after an upgrade.  Even still, a few unhappy things always still seem to get through.

Good Luck

 

[honanhal 1,420]

Thanks, Bob. Good advice and much appreciated!

James