On 7/21/2019 at 4:39 AM, Jammin16 said:

 

I have the feeling that it is me who made a mistake. But to be 100% sure I just wanted to hear, is it stupid to put P3D v4 on the same disk as windows ???

 

 

This was more of a problem with the older Standard hard DISK drives. As so performance wouldn't lag badly as windows was doing its thing while you are trying to load scenery... Today with modern high speed SSD's this is not much of an issue. I did then and still do however recommend installing P3D on its own drive (SSD).

Edited July 25, 20196 yr by turboken

"is it stupid to put P3D v4 on the same disk as windows?"

It is smart.

 

A typical proliferation among PCs is to have an SSD boot and a large HDD storage.

With that in mind, these are the folders installed on the boot drive by P3D setup:

C:\Users\you\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4
C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4
C:\Users\you\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons
C:\Users\you\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files
C:\Users\you\Pictures\Prepar3D v4 Files
C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

Optionally we can locate the program folder
C:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

on the HDD, for example:
D:\FS\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

With excess RAM Windows caches disk reads and writes.
This levels up the access time of files while they are in the cache.

Non cached program files are going to be loaded slower off the HDD.

Addons located in:
C:\Users\you\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons

these do not necessarily need their associated files in C they can go to  D

So all the main stuff in in the Windows disk.

Moving anything off of the bootable sim to the HDD increases loading time.

Avoid trouble with addons that install their files in the P3D/FSX program files set User group Modify Allow checked.

The most reliable setup is default C install + users group modify allow. Move large stuff with xml paths and FSX cfgs.

That's the best advice that I have. Relocation means addon trouble. Able only to start up the sim Run As Admin means trouble. These are the two things I avoid.

 

 

 

19 minutes ago, SteveW said:

"is it stupid to put P3D v4 on the same disk as windows?"

It is smart.

 

A typical proliferation among PCs is to have an SSD boot and a large HDD storage.

With that in mind, these are the folders installed on the boot drive by P3D setup:

C:\Users\you\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4
C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4
C:\Users\you\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons
C:\Users\you\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files
C:\Users\you\Pictures\Prepar3D v4 Files
C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

Optionally we can locate the program folder
C:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

on the HDD, for example:
D:\FS\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4

With excess RAM Windows caches disk reads and writes.
This levels up the access time of files while they are in the cache.

Non cached program files are going to be loaded slower off the HDD.

Addons located in:
C:\Users\you\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons

these do not necessarily need their associated files in C they can go to  D

So all the main stuff in in the Windows disk.

Moving anything off of the bootable sim to the HDD increases loading time.

Avoid trouble with addons that install their files in the P3D/FSX program files set User group Modify Allow checked.

The most reliable setup is default C install + users group modify allow. Move large stuff with xml paths and FSX cfgs.

That's the best advice that I have. Relocation means addon trouble. Able only to start up the sim Run As Admin means trouble. These are the two things I avoid.

 

 

 

 

For the most part, that is exactly what I do as well.  Great advice!

 

Dave,

You have it all sorted out properly as usual.

I too have found that 99 % of problems come from spagettification of addons, skewed around, and about, relocated installs of FSX and P3D, accompanied by misinformed attempts to enable privileges where permission was required.

14 hours ago, SteveW said:

Dave,

You have it all sorted out properly as usual.

I too have found that 99 % of problems come from spagettification of addons, skewed around, and about, relocated installs of FSX and P3D, accompanied by misinformed attempts to enable privileges where permission was required.

Absolutely!  

Thanks my friend!

 

Thanks Dave!

We are in a period of overlap whereby we have items from the past running in security of the present. It is easy to see why the idea of installing on C appears daft. But there's a professional approach to solutions that might not be apparent to an individual, because the pros see lots of systems, the user sees one, or two.

Work-arounds emerge from users efforts to find a solution. That's more than OK, that's good.

When they both result in no issue I could live with a work around.

I often get to untangle other's simulators, like your good self, and like many others around, symbol to name one other exceptional example, are hard working in the field. So it is one of the few subjects I'm interested in. I have to assert my understanding from the professional IT side and NT systems. This has nothing to do with my own software efforts, they were always designed to appreciate the protected folders, even in WinXP.

I had P3DV4 on my C drive until I got my 2TB SSD drive.  I migrated first my photo scenery, then the entire program to my SSD drive by using the typical upgrade procedure of uninstalling, then reinstalling to my G drive (my SSD drive).  I was not even asked to enter my registration key.  As a result I get faster starting of P3D and more fluidity when I am using it due to the faster reads using my SSD with USB 3.0.  The same process can be applied if you do not go with an SSD and just get an internal or external hard drive, although then you will not gain much in terms of performance, just storage space if you need it.

John

Of course it stands to reason that putting things on the faster drive speeds that part up. However you missed the part where 90% of the running files are on drive C, your slow drive. I would make the SSD the boot drive and install P3D there.

Why we might need all the planes and all the scenery installed on another drive seems pointless, since we only load one aeroplane and the local scenery. Scenery is also loaded ahead of time in the sim.

Desirable performance comes from the 90% working files on drive C and appropriate setup.