[Hard Drive Query] Can I copy/paste MSFS?

[Rusty 11]

Dear All,

With the addition of 40th Anniversary content, I am fast running out of space on my 1TB NVME SSD. Should one take advantage of the black/white Friday sales and purchase a bigger drive, can MSFS simply be "copy/pasted" over? The last thing I want to do is have to re-install everything again (which is not a problem) but then spending days to reconfigure everything is a huge task.

Please could someone advise! Thanks. 

[orchestra_nl 817]

If you are replacing your system drive you could use Macrium to clone the old drive to the new. If MSFS is installed on another drive you can clone that as well.

If you have multiple M2 slots, you can also just add the NVMe as an extra drive and move the folder that has the Community and Official folder in them to the new drive. The next time you start MSFS it then asks you for its location. You can also edit the usercfg.opt to modify this location, it's probably in the last line.

The Steam version might be moved through the Steam client.

[bobcat999 7,683]

I am about to do this.  My 1TB NVMe MSFS drive is at 85%, so I bought a new Samsung 980 Pro 2TB NVMe drive on a black Friday deal through Amazon and saved a lot of money.

I am on the Windows Marketplace version.  My plan to transfer it over, using just Windows Disk Manager...
I have a last remaining M.2 slot on my board and I slotted it into there and initialised the drive alright last night, and gave it drive letter Z: (and named it 'Spare') for now.

My current install is on the F: drive and named 'Flightsim'.  I plan to simply copy over the whole MSFS folder, which of course includes Official, Community, and a backup folder (used for addon linker).  My Orbx Library and Aerosoft folder (Twin Otter) are also in the root of F:.  They make links into the community folder from there of course.

When absolutely everything from this F: drive is copied over to Z: (quite fast with and NVMe to NVMe transfer).
Using Disk Manager, I will then relabel my original F: drive to Y: OldFS (and keep all the files and structure in case anything goes wrong ).

Then Relabel my new Z: drive to F: and rename it to 'Flightsim', all identical to my old drive.
Then reboot, throw salt over my shoulder, spin around three times, and offer a sacrifice to Kyberia, the goddess of computers, and utter the phrase 'praise be to Bill Gates and Jorg Neumann' for the duration of the reboot.  That should do it!   

This should work shouldn't it?  Anyone with any knowledge of these things, please let me know if it won't.  I am going for it tonight after dinner.  

[JimBrown 595]

1 hour ago, bobcat999 said:

This should work shouldn't it?  Anyone with any knowledge of these things, please let me know if it won't.  I am going for it tonight after dinner.

I'm a retired IT guy, and I see no issues with your plan. Including the salt, spin, sacrifice, and praise.

There might be a simpler way, though. Since you will have both drives in the same PC, get Macrium Reflect and clone the old drive to the new drive, being sure to change the partition properties to change the size of the partition. Once that is done, change the drive letters.

...jim

[bobcat999 7,683]

29 minutes ago, JimBrown said:

I'm a retired IT guy, and I see no issues with your plan. Including the salt, spin, sacrifice, and praise.

There might be a simpler way, though. Since you will have both drives in the same PC, get Macrium Reflect and clone the old drive to the new drive, being sure to change the partition properties to change the size of the partition. Once that is done, change the drive letters.

...jim

Sincere thanks Jim, that gives me some confidence! 
I have used Macrium Reflect before actually, mainly when the OS was involved in the cloning process. 
I will dig it out if I hit problems, but as they are just data drives I will try my simple copy, relabel, and rename first.  Just off to buy some salt!  

[Gerwil 171]

You can simply copy/paste then change the last line in the UserOpt.cfg to resemble the new location, in my case:

InstalledPackagesPath "E:\MSFS"

 

Store version location of UserOpt:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

Edited November 21, 2022 by Gerwil

[G-RFRY 1,655]

5 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

I am about to do this.  My 1TB NVMe MSFS drive is at 85%, so I bought a new Samsung 980 Pro 2TB NVMe drive on a black Friday deal through Amazon and saved a lot of money.

I am on the Windows Marketplace version.  My plan to transfer it over, using just Windows Disk Manager...
I have a last remaining M.2 slot on my board and I slotted it into there and initialised the drive alright last night, and gave it drive letter Z: (and named it 'Spare') for now.

My current install is on the F: drive and named 'Flightsim'.  I plan to simply copy over the whole MSFS folder, which of course includes Official, Community, and a backup folder (used for addon linker).  My Orbx Library and Aerosoft folder (Twin Otter) are also in the root of F:.  They make links into the community folder from there of course.

When absolutely everything from this F: drive is copied over to Z: (quite fast with and NVMe to NVMe transfer).
Using Disk Manager, I will then relabel my original F: drive to Y: OldFS (and keep all the files and structure in case anything goes wrong ).

Then Relabel my new Z: drive to F: and rename it to 'Flightsim', all identical to my old drive.
Then reboot, throw salt over my shoulder, spin around three times, and offer a sacrifice to Kyberia, the goddess of computers, and utter the phrase 'praise be to Bill Gates and Jorg Neumann' for the duration of the reboot.  That should do it!   

This should work shouldn't it?  Anyone with any knowledge of these things, please let me know if it won't.  I am going for it tonight after dinner.  

Samsung have a free software tool on the web site. you can use to clone a MVMe I used it to Clone my O/S C.Drive no problem.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154944674@N05/51643886573/in/dateposted-public/

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by G-RFRY

[orchestra_nl 817]

5 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

I am about to do this.  My 1TB NVMe MSFS drive is at 85%, so I bought a new Samsung 980 Pro 2TB NVMe drive on a black Friday deal through Amazon and saved a lot of money.

I am on the Windows Marketplace version.  My plan to transfer it over, using just Windows Disk Manager...
I have a last remaining M.2 slot on my board and I slotted it into there and initialised the drive alright last night, and gave it drive letter Z: (and named it 'Spare') for now.

My current install is on the F: drive and named 'Flightsim'.  I plan to simply copy over the whole MSFS folder, which of course includes Official, Community, and a backup folder (used for addon linker).  My Orbx Library and Aerosoft folder (Twin Otter) are also in the root of F:.  They make links into the community folder from there of course.

When absolutely everything from this F: drive is copied over to Z: (quite fast with and NVMe to NVMe transfer).
Using Disk Manager, I will then relabel my original F: drive to Y: OldFS (and keep all the files and structure in case anything goes wrong ).

Then Relabel my new Z: drive to F: and rename it to 'Flightsim', all identical to my old drive.
Then reboot, throw salt over my shoulder, spin around three times, and offer a sacrifice to Kyberia, the goddess of computers, and utter the phrase 'praise be to Bill Gates and Jorg Neumann' for the duration of the reboot.  That should do it!   

This should work shouldn't it?  Anyone with any knowledge of these things, please let me know if it won't.  I am going for it tonight after dinner.  

Yeah, it should work. I use Total Commander for these kind of projects but using File Explorer might also work.
Are you unlinking the files in Addonlinker beforehand?

[crimplene 618]

You can very easily move the folder containing Community and Official to any drive you like. Just move it and rename it to something of your liking. MSFS will ask your for the path if it doesn't find them at start - you will get the usual "146 GB update to downlad" (or whatever the wording is) window. There you chose the new path, MSFS will realize that everything is there and it has nothing to download, and that's it.

[bobcat999 7,683]

7 minutes ago, orchestra_nl said:

Yeah, it should work. I use Total Commander for these kind of projects but using File Explorer might also work.
Are you unlinking the files in Addonlinker beforehand?

Yes - but thanks for the reminder.  I have totally scrubbed my Addon Linker set up to start again with a new structure for aircraft and scenery etc. 
I need to have a think about how to structure it more logically rather than just dump everything in one folder! 

I use a program similar to Total Commander - XYplorer.  Like TC, it can be twin window and I find it a bit more friendly. 
Total Commander started me off on these Explorer replacements. There are some good ones out there.

 

[RaptyrOne 1,390]

7 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Then Relabel my new Z: drive to F: and rename it to 'Flightsim', all identical to my old drive.

@bobcat999 please let us know how this goes. I will follow suit if it works out as planned. This is a better solution to just moving Community and Packages to a new drive and leaving some other stuff behind.

[daztheman70 9]

I tried this to clone a mechanical drive to an ssd and it didnt work due to digital ownership issue I have the Game Pass version of MSFSand used Macrium in the end I had to do a full windows reinstall and then install flight sim was a nightmare took me all weekend, hope it works for you guys.

 

Daz 

[bobcat999 7,683]

@RaptyrOne, @Rusty, @daztheman70

Well that worked a treat!  After a quick reboot, the drive letters were reassigned, and MSFS loaded straight up.  A bit quicker as well due to the slightly quicker NVMe drive.  It is now definitely on the 2TB drive.
All I used was a twin-pane explorer to do the copying, and Windows Disk Management software to rename and relabel the drives (old program, but free, easy to use, and still good - right click on Windows 'start' to access it.).

I have just paused a flight to come back and report, but currently I am enjoying myself around the Boise, Idaho area (great scenery) in a bushy Beaver!  (Aircraft by the way, just to avoid any confusion ).

Now to restructure my MSFS2020 folder, and my Addon Linker folder.

My Aerosoft and Orbx libraries are external to the MSFS folder, but inside the folder there are now the following folders: -

Addon Linker (purely an installation folder for the Addon Linker program).  
Addons (all my stuff linked through Addon Linker).  Sub folders will be... Aircraft (originals), Aircraft Mods, Paints, Scenery (split into continents, and then country subfolders), UI Mods, and finally Misc (for things such as better runway marking mods, Garmin units etc. such as PMS750).
Community
Official

 Like I say, all good and working beautifully.  Just make sure to rename and relabel the old drive to something else first, then rename and relabel the new drive exactly the same as the old one.  No other changes needed.
Obviously my user config last line didn't need changing doing it this way, as it still points to the F: drive and the same root folder (MSFS2020).

[Rusty 11]

Fantastic, cheers guys!

[RaptyrOne 1,390]

8 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Well that worked a treat!  After a quick reboot, the drive letters were reassigned, and MSFS loaded straight up.  A bit quicker as well due to the slightly quicker NVMe drive. 

This is fantastic news, thanks for letting us know. No question that this is the best way to do it then. I am holding out for better deals on a top tier Nvme drive on Black Friday, just a few days away, will commit by then.