On 5/27/2021 at 12:57 PM, pmb said:

I went through this on day 1 of MSFS. Fortunately I was within the money-back term and managed to get it back indeed. Bought the Steam version and am happy since.

A lot of people don't have issues with the MS Store version, but installing on a drive different from C seems to call for trouble. I don't understand why MS still maintains this user-unfriendly setup, as they're clearly loosing money from users switching to Steam.

Kind regards, Michael

There is nothing wrong with the windows store installation. You pick a drive or folder and let it install. The problem is when you are updating, instead of just letting the instaler do its thing, some people change the installation path not knowing. I have my sim installed on the d drive in games/Msfs2020 and never had a problem with updates. 

On 5/27/2021 at 12:45 PM, Alti said:

Hi, its happend the 2nd time: (first time the same happened by the US-World-Update)

Last update today destroyed the install folders. they have changed from L:\to C:\
My MSFS was before on separate SSD 
The sim was installed in L:\WindowsApps\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_(version number)....__8wekyb3d8bbwe
now after the last update all files are not on "L:\..."- the Folders are empty,
so all Files i find now in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe

also my community folder which was also on L:\MSFS_Download\Community,
and this folder is now also on C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community.
but the community folder on c:\.. is empty.

The installer/Updater  did not show any Error during update process. i just want to start a flight after the update was finished, the sim crashed.
Now I can not run the Microsoft Flight Simulator App from the windows10 start menu, because ist says "File not found", its pointed to Drive L:\ ...
the ..exe from Flight Simulator i can now find on C:\...
Also the FTX-Central from Orbx sys now "Install Folder MSFSLibrary not found".
My L:\ - SSD did not show any Error, only the "old" MSFS Folders are empty. All Files on C:\ now.

i want to repair the MSFS in Windows10 App-Setings, or MS Store, but it says the sim is installed on L:\ ... the only i can do is to remove the install to an other drive,
or uninstall. a repair is not available.

Never, Never i will Buy an App in the MS-Store again. the MSFS was the last from MS.
i have now again to uninstall the sim complete, so all Folders for the MS are cleared out, and install again on Drive "L:",
maybe it will stay on L:\ then i have time to get the next update...
Microsoft so i say again: "I Will .."words not allowed"..  you"!

The problem is that when you update and it asks for the folder the installer will automatically find the drive, so if it's on L, you should see L:\msfs in the drive path. Just click continue or next. As a matter of fact, if the path is wrong and the sim is trying reinstall itself, you can select the path for the original installation and it will change from installation to update 

1 minute ago, devgrp said:

The problem is that when you update and it asks for the folder the installer will automatically find the drive, so if it's on L, you should see L:\msfs in the drive path. Just click continue or next. As a matter of fact, if the path is wrong and the sim is trying reinstall itself, you can select the path for the original installation and it will change from installation to update 

You should learn to read. that is not the Problem. I have wrote before  that i am check this point - EVER

1 minute ago, Alti said:

You should learn to read. that is not the Problem. I have wrote before  that i am check this point - EVER

What you wrote is unreadable. One big mess. Clearly you caused your own grief, and you're good now because someone actually decided to help you. I mean it's not rocket science installing a piece of software lol

7 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Here is one practical reason.  It was quite a few years ago, but I had a game I had installed on my C: drive (possibly Skyrim if I recall correctly) when it completely hung/froze. 
I waited minutes, but in the end I had to shut down from the PC hardware button (as even Control-alt-del didn't work).

The PC wouldn't reboot again.  On using a checking CD it said the 😄 drive was corrupted and it couldn't repair it.

I had to fully install windows again.  It took me a few hours and I lost a few photos I wasn't particularly worried about, but I swore I would never put any games on my 😄 drive again.

I bought another Hard disk and named it G: (for games).  I also now have F: (for Flight sims) separate.  I suppose if you don't have the income, you can't keep buying hard disks, but that is a separate issue.

Now I know what you might be thinking - it could have been the hard disk that had an issue, not the game.  Well maybe, but that hard disk reinstalled with Windows and MS Office and a few other apps never had that problem again, and was only swapped recently for a new M.2 NVME.

It is simply user choice and maybe down to money, but I will only ever put Windows, MS Office, and a few other well used apps on my 😄 drive again. 
This also helps if you ever do want to reinstall Windows quickly or do a complete 😄 drive format (luckily a rare thing these days), but I appreciate this whole thing is mainly down to user choice.

Pointing to a 'game' per se, and not any piece of software, does seem arbitrary to me.  Ever since SSDs arrived I've always put all running software on the system drive, and data only on secondary drives.  Back in the days of slow HDD I could see some benefit of separating sim and OS but much less so now, especially w/ the NVMe m.2 drives.  Plus, I've always cloned my C:\ drive w/ OS and all executable software to an identical disk, which I've done again w/ P3D and now MSFS was added in August 2020.  It helps to have a 2TB NVMe m.2, in fact two of them!  I don't use my desktop for any MS Office functions it's soley for gaming and digital VST (piano and other Virtual Studio Technology), under the belief MS Office is a well know viral target, at least was, so I use a MacBook for other PC use including Office, and all critical data is in the Apple Cloud.  In the fairly recent past I was installing a licensing software (PACE) for a piano VST and it rendered Win 10 unbootable.  I was able to use a bootable USB stick to fix the boot sector (it was a dual boot at that point, with the 2nd system disk being a clone of the first, for the uber-easy restore in the event of a catestrophic failure of teh main drive).     So I never needed to use the clone.  I decided to remove it outright and lose the dual boot, and will install it physically again if my main disk goes.   And to be frank the main reason for the clone is because of the heinous process one goes thru to install P3D and all of its myriad addons, their installers, etc etc.  With MSFS it's really a one button reinstall.   As for the idea of reinstalling Windows I still don't see the point because you still need to reinstall all of your simware that was on the other disks anyway.  I see zero evidence of I/O affecting any aspect of sim performance any longer and it seems really messy to put executable software on multiple disks.   I think this is a legacy strategy that isn't as justifiable nowadays as it was in past times.  But to each their own as you say.

Edited May 29, 20215 yr by Noel

On 5/27/2021 at 12:20 PM, RandallR said:

Similar here - MS Store Premium Deluxe and I chose my D drive for the install.  I've never had an issue with updates and everything appears to go in the proper place.

Later this year, when I replace the D drive with a new SSD and clone the drive, I hope all goes well...

It probably won't go well.  I originally installed the MS Store MSFS completely (base install and appdata) and successfully on a dedicated SATA SSD drive.  Later I got a NVMe SSD to replace that SATA SSD.  So I cloned that SATA drive to the NVMe drive, pulled the SATA drive and changed the NVMe drive's letter to that of the removed SATA drive.  This did not work, for on launching MSFS it complained about missing files and then exited.  What is even more frustrating is that when I reinstalled that SATA drive with a new drive letter, launching MSFS using my new NVMe install ran fine (that is until I reformatted that SATA drive).  After wasting a better part of a day trying to get it to work I ended up reinstalling MSFS on the NVMe drive, but even that was now painful for my "original" install was now botched up and wouldn't uninstall properly for the new install to take place.  Can't say what I did in the end to get the reinstall to work, but I swore I'd never again attempt to drive clone MSFS.  My advice for a dedicated MSFS drive swap is to first completely uninstall from the old drive, then online reinstall completely to the new drive.

Edited May 29, 20215 yr by TheFamilyMan

1 hour ago, TheFamilyMan said:

...  My advice for a dedicated MSFS drive swap is to first completely uninstall from the old drive, then online reinstall completely to the new drive.

This, except back up the OneStore directory, and use those for the new install.

Not sure if backing up the Cache .CCC files will work.

7 hours ago, devgrp said:

What you wrote is unreadable. One big mess. Clearly you caused your own grief, and you're good now because someone actually decided to help you. I mean it's not rocket science installing a piece of software lol

Has does the saying go - "fool me once... fool me twice...".

Regards

bs

19 hours ago, devgrp said:

What you wrote is unreadable. One big mess. Clearly you caused your own grief, and you're good now because someone actually decided to help you. I mean it's not rocket science installing a piece of software lol

Hello,

I apologize for the somewhat ill-considered answer, which I, in by another post aufommende rage, have transacted. I do not want to offend anyone here, and do not want that from others. The better answer would have been: Thank you for trying to help, but the problem is already solved and the post was just to show what curious things can happen with a failed update. I hope that my translator program brings this correctly and not unambiguously into English. 

Many years ago I learned to keep the operating system on, at least, a separate partition. Software was always installed elsewhere. However, in the last few years I encountered more and more software that insisted on being installed to the C:/ drive to avoid path issues. For a time I ignored this and continued installing software to drives other than C:/. Then at one point I began having issues with critical work software not being able to find installations and refusing to boot or update correctly. I realized the hammer had finally fallen. The continuing "dumbing-down" of PC systems to accommodate the uninformed had finally won out. I had to jump onboard with everyone else and "go with the flow." Fortunately, large SSD's have become affordable and common, so installing software to default C:/ locations was no longer a space issue. The only issue now is the nightmare of having to reinstall EVERYTHING, should Windows get corrupted. Since being coerced into going to Win 10 I have been fortunate not to have to do a fresh install, but I know the moment will come when this will occur, even if it's only at the point of doing a new build. This has reinforced my already good habits of keeping my machine lean-and-mean, and never installing any software that isn't absolutely critical to the mission.

Same here - I haven't allowed anything on my C drive but the OS, Office programs and system utilities - period - for years.  And, I continue to do so.  This saved my bacon more than once, and did so again last year (prior to the release of FS2020) when my D drive died and took out my OS with it.  I back up every week, so I haven't lost too much with any crashes in the past (and I've only had 3 in 30+ years of computing.

In the past, all I had to do was reformat, then copy the C drive data back in, then boot up with everything in place.  Last year, when the D drive went she corrupted the OS somehow, so I had to restore both the OS and clone a new D drive.  No issues, just took a few minutes longer.

I still don't allow anything else to go on my C drive, unless the program forces me to (which I then despise and look to replace with something else).

1 hour ago, Bosco19 said:

Many years ago I learned to keep the operating system on, at least, a separate partition. Software was always installed elsewhere. However, in the last few years I encountered more and more software that insisted on being installed to the C:/ drive to avoid path issues. For a time I ignored this and continued installing software to drives other than C:/. Then at one point I began having issues with critical work software not being able to find installations and refusing to boot or update correctly. I realized the hammer had finally fallen. The continuing "dumbing-down" of PC systems to accommodate the uninformed had finally won out. I had to jump onboard with everyone else and "go with the flow." Fortunately, large SSD's have become affordable and common, so installing software to default C:/ locations was no longer a space issue. The only issue now is the nightmare of having to reinstall EVERYTHING, should Windows get corrupted. Since being coerced into going to Win 10 I have been fortunate not to have to do a fresh install, but I know the moment will come when this will occur, even if it's only at the point of doing a new build. This has reinforced my already good habits of keeping my machine lean-and-mean, and never installing any software that isn't absolutely critical to the mission.

I have only had windows corrupted once in around 30 years, and it was most likely due to a HD going bad. With windows 10, there is a way to repair windows without having to reinstall any programs or data. I use Macrium Reflex to automatically  back up my drives a few times a month. 

 

Edited May 30, 20215 yr by Bobsk8

Thanks for that tip Bob. I'll keep that in my "toolkit, should it ever become necessary.