Can I Clone my Drives and Keep MSFS Operational?

[RandallR 451]

10 hours ago, SierraHotel said:

That's a BIG YES! I have just had to reorganise my drives due to the purchase of another M.2 drive during which I successfully cloned both my OS drive and my MSFS drive, apart from having to review and redo a couple of cockpit cams, It all works perfectly.

Good to know.  My situation will be quite a bit more complicated with a new MB and CPU (not just a change of drives), but it looks like MSFS should be OK.

[Republic3D 1,232]

6 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

SATA connectors on the motherboard?

I don't think it's going to work with an M.2 NVMe drive, could work with a M.2 SATA drive of course.
Anyways, didn't mean to steal the thread.

[Bert Pieke 7,594]

22 minutes ago, Republic3D said:

I don't think it's going to work with an M.2 NVMe drive, could work with a M.2 SATA drive of course.
Anyways, didn't mean to steal the thread.

A SATA connected drive is plenty fast enough 🙂

[Fielder 3,803]

You need to read from your old physical drive and write to the new drive. The new drive will be installed on the motherboard of your new computer. If your new computer has a motherboard with 2 slots on it, then your old drive can be plugged in there. And you copy the old over to the new. (Don't do it backwards or you lose everything, i.e. don't clone the new (empty) drive over your old drive and wind up with two empty drives.

If your new MB has only one nVME slot then you will need an interface box (about $15 to $30). The controller in the box will one of 3 brands, two of which are the most common and not reliable, buggy (according to threads on Reddit).

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/comments/fi28o6/sabrent_usb_32_toolfree_nvme_ssd_enclosure_review/

So I used this one which had the "good" controller:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RVC6F9Y/

 

These cloning apps are no longer free, although they start the process free. There are old Youtube videos using them (now obsolete because the software is no longer free).

Macrium reflect

EaseUS

AOMIEI

Donemax

HDCclone

This is free and I used 10.2.3: MiniTool Partition Wizard Free (versions 10.2.3. and 11.5 are free, later versions are subscription. Some apparently other free versions are mentioned in messages above.

MSFS proved to be no harder than any of the other 50 or so apps on my old system that moved to the new system. Everything worked perfectly including MSFS. I found no issue specific to MSFS (my version is the Steam version). If you know how to clone other apps and data, then MSFS can be done the same way (at least it was that way for me. I have done it twice).

 

[Fielder 3,803]

Youtube has videos demonstrating the process. It's just that in 2023 most of the cloning software they used in the videos are no longer freeware. Everything else in those YT videos held true and was all the instruction I needed.

[jcomm 6,052]

In my new rig I have two NVMe bays, and a few SATA connectors which I could use to plug one of my older SSD disks ( 256 GB ) to make backups of my Simulators disk / partition, but I usually keep a copy of that ( F: ) disk in an external 500 GB HD.

It's very easy to "reinstall" MFS for me, specially since I purchased the upgrade to the Deluxe Premium Edition (one of my best buys in 2023 🙂 ) . Whenever I decide to "uninstall" MFS, I follow the correct sequence of uninstalling all of the addons, then MFS itself, close the PC and go to bed saying - I will NEVER use this shoyt again!!!

Then, after a few hours / days, suffering from the terrible "Uninstaller Syndrome" and trying to find all of the best reasons to be away from MFS 2020, like trying to believe either P3D or XP are the best options, I become real, and run back home reinstalling it...

The process is simple: I never touch the xBox Insider opt for beta, load the normal xBox Win 11 APP, start the install with the core 2,1GB content that goes to the right C : folder used by xBoxGames by default, then if I hadn't done so before, I copy from the external disk my MFS2020 folder into the root of F:, and only after that (which can take around 1,5 hr) I start MFS for the first time. When it loads and starts the SYNC process it asks me to install into a default C : subfolder, and it's then that I click on that path, write the "F:\MFS2020" target, and it's then less than 1 min for MFS to check the version and, continue direct to a normal start or offer to update to a new version, should the backup be outdated.

One of these days I started looking for hardware options for cloning NVMe, but heck !!! they cost a fortune !!! 1000+ € !!!! 

Now, my rig has 2 NVMe PCIe slots, one for the system C : partition with 500 GB, and the 1 TB for the simulators F: disk... I plan to buy a new 1 TB NVMe and make a clone of the original F: one by extracting the C : disk and placing there the new NVMe, and then start the system from an USB Clonezilla or something similar, with it's own OS, and make the copy.

Edited January 2 by jcomm

[SierraHotel 994]

On 1/1/2024 at 11:43 PM, Republic3D said:

I don't think it's going to work with an M.2 NVMe drive, could work with a M.2 SATA drive of course.
Anyways, didn't mean to steal the thread.

As a matter of interest, I'm running MSFS on an M.2 2T which is installed in a Sabrent Docking station which in turn is plugged in to a USB 3 port. MSFS runs perfectly.

[Republic3D 1,232]

6 hours ago, SierraHotel said:

As a matter of interest, I'm running MSFS on an M.2 2T which is installed in a Sabrent Docking station which in turn is plugged in to a USB 3 port. MSFS runs perfectly.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been looking at NVMe cloners that are built for this job, but they're still quite expensive. 

[SierraHotel 994]

16 hours ago, Republic3D said:

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been looking at NVMe cloners that are built for this job, but they're still quite expensive. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BP2ZRPKJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details