Moving MSFS 2020 to a new drive

[brucewtb 249]

What is the recommended procedure for moving MSFS 2020 from a partition on a SATA SSD to a new NVMe M.2 drive?  With P3D this was a simple process you simply moved/copied/cloned the P3D installation to the new drive then changed the drive letter to that of the former install drive and you were good to go.  Unclear if this will work with MSFS 2020 - I found that could copy most files to the new drive but not the packages.  Will cloning work - going from a 2tb partition on a 4tb SATA SSD to a new 2TB M.2 drive using a tool such as Macrium Reflect or Acronis and then changing the drive letter as with P3D?  According to Samsung Magician my new 2tb M.2 drive has 375 MB of data and presumably this would be erased by cloning - would that matter? I also have seen reports that there could be digital rights issues with this.  There is also the option of the Windows 10 Move App function possibly the simplest if it works reliably but I then end up with a new drive letter for my MSFS 2020 which I would like to avoid and I would also like to have a copy of my MSFS 2020 stuff in the old location until I can confirm that things are going to work on the new M.2 drive.  Grateful for any suggestions.

Bruce

[Mike S KPDX 597]

Steam install is easy as pie.  MS Store - I have no idea.

[brucewtb 249]

Not sure how that helps but thank you anyway.

Bruce

[fppilot 4,374]

1 hour ago, brucewtb said:

What is the recommended procedure for moving MSFS 2020 from a partition on a SATA SSD to a new NVMe M.2 drive? 

I did not save the links, but do your due diligence to cleanse your system of all traces of the current installation before you proceed.  Find out for certain where the elements of your current installation are located.  Much will be in the recesses of username appdata.  Take time to search and identify.  Uninstall.  Registry cleanse.  Remove all stray "widows and orphans".  And verify twice over.  Then reinstall into a shallow folder on your chosen SSD.

I did all of this before a fresh install after SU5 and waiting out the ensuing hotfixes.  I have gone from a problematic install to an install so far without issues.

Based on great frustration with the recent World Update, if you would not loose licensing for many $$$$ of Marketplace purchased additional products I would recommend paying for and implementing a Steam installation.

Edited September 28, 2021 by fppilot

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

3 hours ago, brucewtb said:

What is the recommended procedure for moving MSFS 2020 from a partition on a SATA SSD to a new NVMe M.2 drive? 

I have learned the hard way, that moving MSFS does not work, even though there is a Settings/Apps/MSFS/Move option.

That is what I used the first time I tried it.. better is: uninstall, reinstall... or you will likely have all kinds of updating problems in your future.  😉

[swiesma 625]

I just copied the folder to another drive and switched the path in the cfg file. Still works….

[cianpars 1,166]

I went through the same process a few months back.  I cloned my drive E containing only msfs onto an m.2 ssd using macrium reflect free and changed the m.2 drive to drive E.

It didn't work initially, so I ran a repair of msfs which only took a few minutes and it has been fine ever since.

The only other option would be to fully delete msfs from your system and reinstall to your new drive, which would not be a bad option, just a lot slower and you may lose your settings (some are stored on the server, so I'm not sure which ones might remain - you could always make a note of them beforehand).

[Mike S KPDX 597]

14 hours ago, brucewtb said:

Not sure how that helps but thank you anyway.

Bruce

I am not sure if you have a steam install or a MS Store install, unless I missed it in your original post.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

11 hours ago, swiesma said:

I just copied the folder to another drive and switched the path in the cfg file. Still works….

What is "the folder"?

In my case, the config file says:  InstalledPackagesPath "C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages"

In actual fact, Local Cache is a junction pointer to the actual install which is on the H drive where I asked MS to install MSFS:   H:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-2487738210-3738013805-794059295-1001\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

Edited September 28, 2021 by Bert Pieke

[fppilot 4,374]

3 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

In actual fact, this is a pointer to the actual install which is on the H drive where I asked MS to install MSFS.

Yes. Bert is correct.  I instructed MSFS (MS Store version) to install into D:\MSFS2020.  The vast majority of the content is there in the Official/OneStore folder. Most stored configurations and such are stored in subfolders in a path equal to what Bert posted.  My path is the same as what he reported.

[Bob Scott 7,721]

With a Steam installation, you can clone the drive directly, and as long as you reassign the new drive to the same drive letter as the old, it will work fine.  Steam does its copy-protection at runtime rather than write-protecting or trying to lock the program files to a particular machine. 

I think the MS Store version presents some DRM issues that prevent using a simple copy, though I wouldn't swear an oath to that effect on a stack of AIMs.

[brucewtb 249]

Thank you guys for these informative replies. I should have made it clear that I have an MS Store installation - perhaps the wrong choice with hindsight but it is what it is.  Thinking about this overnight before getting back to Avsim this morning I was coming to the view that a fresh install maybe the way to go but even that doesn't seem an entirely straight forward proposition - still not sure. One thing I have discovered is that the Windows 10 App move utility leaves symbolic links on the former drive after moving all the MSFS data to the new drive so you could be limited in your options for re purposing the old drive. With third party apps I guess you could also have daisy chains of symbolic links to symbolic links - unclear how well that would work. MS certainly know how to make life difficult for their long suffering customers.

Bruce

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

1 hour ago, brucewtb said:

MS certainly know how to make life difficult for their long suffering customers.

Yup, when I had to go back to a restore point in Windows, the links got broken and I had to reinstall MSFS.

[Nemo 1,305]

I have the MS Store version installed on C drive but the Content folder is on D. Works perfect.

Now I consider to change the D drive. In my understanding, this should be possible by copying the Content folder to a new drive and rename that drive to D. Do I miss something?

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

9 hours ago, Nemo said:

Now I consider to change the D drive. In my understanding, this should be possible by copying the Content folder to a new drive and rename that drive to D. Do I miss something?

MS uses encryption in strange ways.. so no guarantees.. but it "should" work.. 😉

Edited September 29, 2021 by Bert Pieke