Several days past I had just completed the Linux installation on my PC - today the SSD on which all things XPlane was installed decided it was time to die - corrupted and busted to the point even my backups could not be retrieved. So off to get a new drive and start the whole process all over. Just when you thought - anything you like. Expletives deleted!!

3 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Several days past I had just completed the Linux installation on my PC - today the SSD on which all things XPlane was installed decided it was time to die - corrupted and busted to the point even my backups could not be retrieved. So off to get a new drive and start the whole process all over. Just when you thought - anything you like. Expletives deleted!!

😪solid state have this drawback 🫤

Hope you get it running back asap! 

Edited January 21Jan 21 by jcomm

I'm afraid that using MFS and map enhancement in X-Plane will cause constant writing to the SSD, which will greatly shorten its life, and at the price they're going to charge for the AI, I'm afraid of losing everything.

Yes I failed to appreciate the limits of the hardware - SSD v Older Disks. I had a few warning signs but they were fleeting until it crashed - well it garballed up some key operating files in such a way as to make them unreadable and most of the Drives directory structure inaccessible or invisible. Glad I had all the sim stuff on a separate drive to the main OS - it would have been a nightmare to get new drive and redo the Linux install as well. 

Back to downloading and testing! A slave to the bits and bytes!

Edited January 21Jan 21 by coastaldriver

15 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

today the SSD on which all things XPlane was installed decided it was time to die

Very odd, how old is the SSD?  MTF for SSD’s around usually around 2+ Million hours.   Sounds more like a cable or connector issue (device or motherboard).

SSD are typically rock solid, slightly higher MTF than M.2 NVMe (1.5M hours) and HDD (1M hours less in smokey environments or environments with high vibrations).

I kept a backup in HDD, although I haven't do it for a while now and my XP12 is growing bigger and bigger..... good reminder to me, thanks... 

6 hours ago, SayAgain said:

Very odd, how old is the SSD?  MTF for SSD’s around usually around 2+ Million hours.   Sounds more like a cable or connector issue (device or motherboard).

SSD are typically rock solid, slightly higher MTF than M.2 NVMe (1.5M hours) and HDD (1M hours less in smokey environments or environments with high vibrations).

The SSD was 3 years old. It as made by Seagate. I checked around and it got poor scores by various testers and being not a good performer in real world conditions and it ran at about 38C temp wise. I did notice that it used to get pretty hot from time to time but never constantly. It got a constant workout running XP12 on Windows probably just a dodgy or dry joint inside - after all these bits sit around in boxes for awhile before they get put to work as well and my country is basically a hot and dry place all year round. Anyway replaced and back to reconstruction work. Going to put the backup on a plugin disk drive. 

Edited January 22Jan 22 by coastaldriver

That sucks and seems unusual. I'm dreading the day any one of my 6 drives goes bad. Most is backed up but still the hassle is real.

Edited January 22Jan 22 by VeryBumpy

My main new years present was the gift from god of the new psu for the new rtx5080 literally setting 4TB of disks on fire.

Just got pretty much everything back up this weekend, but still a few things to get back the way I like them, especially with xplane.

I did find plank during the reinstall, thats awesome, also, I noticed default xplane scenery is actually starting to look good, not sure I'll bother downloading and building the ortho again.

 

mSparks - have to agree re default scenery. I had a lot of clutter or so called ehancements but now am starting afresh with a pristine Linux installation and that includes aircraft addons - way to many just for the sake of maybe or now and then - did I really want them - seems not - got my favourites they will be fine and Laminar Default aircraft are actually really very impressive now and well need a pretty major argument about in sim functionality to get an alternative. Some others (B747 Tolliss Airbuses and some Thranda types)of course go without saying! 

Edited January 23Jan 23 by coastaldriver

1 hour ago, coastaldriver said:

mSparks - have to agree re default scenery. I had a lot of clutter or so called ehancements but now am starting afresh with a pristine Linux installation and that includes aircraft addons - way to many just for the sake of maybe or now and then - did I really want them - seems not - got my favourites they will be fine and Laminar Default aircraft are actually really very impressive now and well need a pretty major argument about in sim functionality to get an alternative. Some others (B747 Tolliss Airbuses and some Thranda types)of course go without saying! 

You're getting part of the "Spirit of the Uninstaller" 🤣... Being able to start afresh 🙂

Edited January 23Jan 23 by jcomm

Well clean drive fresh installation of the XP12 for linux. Discovered a few new things on the way with getting the best or fixing so called Linux issues.

Still thinking about whether to put back ORBX Global Forests - discovered it removed the treess from my start up and go to airport so undecided about that one. Definitely will put back in the major Artic and Antartica packages simply because XP12 just does not provide coverage and high latitudes north or south. Guess my test is now - does any scenery addon require a dozen different object libraries? then probably not now need to be very important or special. Probably picked up another 10FPS on top of the 50+ so now seeing 65FPS+ without a bunch of scenery addons! 

On 1/23/2026 at 7:35 AM, coastaldriver said:

mSparks - have to agree re default scenery. I had a lot of clutter or so called ehancements but now am starting afresh with a pristine Linux installation and that includes aircraft addons - way to many just for the sake of maybe or now and then - did I really want them - seems not - got my favourites they will be fine and Laminar Default aircraft are actually really very impressive now and well need a pretty major argument about in sim functionality to get an alternative. Some others (B747 Tolliss Airbuses and some Thranda types)of course go without saying! 

I feel like maybe they snuck in some ortho, at least I'm seeing "baked in" dirt tracks that very much match the real world, while at the same time it isn't actually ortho, maybe more like they are taking better "hints" from OSM data at generating the ground textures, but really, a consistent feel, and no where near the fps damage we had before.

Like, I have OrbX EGCB and OrbX UK, it's only marginally better than default, and in some spots (e.g. the nearby gold course) default might actually be called better... I'll install them again and see, but the days of default XP scenery making your eyes bleed already seem well behind us.

VERY happy with my backup procedure, this was the first real test of mostly unexpectedly losing everything on my machine since maybe 20 years, and so far I don't think I've lost anything other than time and a couple of scripts.

My basic backup "rules" are:

1. Dont backup downloaded stuff and keep them very separate from "real" documents that belong to me.

2. Make extensive use of resillo sync and github for day to day documents and development, run these on incremental backups to removable storage.

3. regular backups of more sensitive stuff held in veracrypt containers to removable storage.

I have not put back a single scenery addon at the moment. No SimHeaven no ORBX etc. You correct something has changed - the ground textures are now quite crisp and clear close and not bad at all. The tree and forest distribution is more than acceptable - that is why install ORBX Global Forests again - the Tree coverage and placement looks fine to me as well in default. Yes the odd airport may not be exactly authentic - but so far not encountered any that make you cringe at all!