7 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

The reason I have used Macrium Reflex for years, is once my Hard drive crashed. I went to Best Buys, bought a brand new Harddrive, installed it, started Macrium, and it loaded my brand new harddrive with everything that was on the original. Restarted PC, and I was right back where I left off. Can't beat that. 

I use Acronis in the same manner - it's powerful and dependable.  I believe that since I didn't designate a custom install folder when I initially installed it, MS placed it in WpSystem and encrypted the Store files.

This blocked the majority of folders and files from editing access, copying (and backup).

I’ve done three reinstall over 3.4 years now simply by completely uninstalling MSFS and reinstalling it through the cloud via the store never had a single issue.  KISS

48 minutes ago, RandallR said:

I mainly wanted to make sure it didn't get on my C:\ drive

I meant, why did you install to D:\ and not to, say, D:\Microsoft Flight Simulator.

What I said.  Since most programs install to a specific folder without issues I wasn't worried about it.

BTW, I'm reinstalling right now - guess what?  You can no longer specify a custom folder for MSFS!  Now, the only choice is where ALL MS games are installed.  The default is now \XboxGames.  If you change the folder, then ALL GAMES go there, not just MSFS.

Update - I spoke to soon - looks like I'll be able to designate with Install Package Path once I restart the sim!

Edited March 23, 20242 yr by RandallR

3 hours ago, cseu said:

at my end synctoy can not syncronize or echeos or contribute files which are encrypted, is there a hidden switch or something else what I'm missing (Win10, all updatet)? Best regards

I have the steam version, originally installed in Win10 which was later updated to Win11. When I installed MSFS I stipulated that it must be installed on Drive D  in folder 'MSFS steam'. The 'Official'-folder was then placed in this folder. I placed my Community-folder in the Steam folder as well. When running Synctoy it is very easy to select each of these two folders (separately) to make a backup to wherever you want. The backups are verified after each run. If, for example, the Official-folder gets damaged, you delete this folder and then copy the backup over in it's place.

I don't know where the 'Official'- and Community folders of the store-version are installed. Simmers with the store-version might give you some info eg how to install this version on a different drive and whether the encryption is then 'broken'. If that is so, Synctoy should then do the job.  

There is no issue with putting it on another drive. The problem appears to be that it was in the root instead of another folder, though I'm still not sure if that's all of the issue.

I'm now placing it in a new folder as an entirely new installation. We'll see if it is encrypted again or whether I can use my regular backup system.

Thank you, it seems my decision years before to install MSFS on sepearate drive but without individual folder was a mistake, next install will be going into a seperate folder, until then MS hopefully solve the items like the press any key loop, deleting the profile, could not login into XBox and other. The synctoy works exceptionally good for other sync tasks. Best regards

Well, it's been about a 6-day journey but I'm back flying again.  With no way to copy or back up my Official folder, I was forced to do a complete new install.  Considering I was starting from scratch I created a folder for it on my D:\ drive and got it out of the root on the reinstall.

• The first part of the reinstall took about 4 hours, as the re-download of Content Manager items like World Updates, etc. took longer than normal (speed varied from 300 to 8 Mbps)
• Once MSFS got back to the main menu, I found most of my settings were restored (but not all).  It reset to DX11 - I had been using DX12 and getting good results so I reset that and some other graphics items.
• After cleaning caches I restarted the sim, only to have it fail and go into spinner mode
• After running file checks it still wouldn't start
• I decided it was time to see if I could copy/back-up the new OneStore folder - it worked!
• After copying the folder I uninstalled the sim again, deleted all remaining folders and ran another install.  After the initial download from Xbox I copied the OneStore folder back to the Official directory and restarted the sim
• The sim started quickly and booted up to the main menu smoothly.
• I  was able to start a flight without a CTD for the first time in about a week

The really good thing here is that now, even if something goes wrong down the road, I'll have viable backups for getting back up quickly.

Here's the latest... Since I reinstalled into a custom folder on my D:\ drive backups and file-copying are fine.  I have now made several successful flights but I did experience the following.

• I've had to revert back to DX-11 or the sim crashes.  This is disappointing as I had been on DX-12 for some time with good performance.
• I've had to dump a number of my favorite liveries (at least for the TBM) as the sim now crashes if I attempt to use any of them.

Something changed in the last update in order for all of this to happen (at least for my system)