After a couple of weeks of research ;(8, I decided to purchase what is considered as the fastest EIDE drive todate, the WesternDigital WD1200JB, a 120GB 7200 RPM quiet drive with an 8MB cache, yes it's not a typo, 8MB cache :-jumpyI can report to FSimmers that this drive makes FS2002 screeeaaaammm :-xxrotflmaoHere's the link to the Western Digital website: http://westerndigital.com/products/products.asp?DriveID=12I really recommend it -- it's faaaasssssttttt :DJ. Padron (KMIA)---

yep, faster hdd makes a difference. I have just installed a SCSI 10,000rpm 18.2 for my OS and Fs2002. A pricy upgrade, but the speed is aweseome.http://www.avsim.com/vfr_center/avsim_sig.jpg

Thanks guys. I will be sure to install the fasterst hard drive on my AMD Clawhammer-based computer I am going to purchase in the Fall. In what way, however, does it make FS2002 scream? I suppose that it loads faster right? Anything else? Is it possible to have FS2002 on a hard drive by itself? Let's say for example that you have one hard drive for all of the regular stuff and a super fast SCSI with only FS2002 on it, or maybe a version of FS2002 with a copy of Windows 2000 Pro on it. As you can tell, my computer skills are lacking. Give us some insight.

I'm going to buy that WD drive too, when the price drops some more. I need something bigger than my current IBM 60GXP 40GB.Just how much faster is the WD drive compared to, say, an IBM 60GXP?

JimmiG, I had an IBM DeskStar 40MB GXP before, the WD1200JB is much faster -- the difference is in the cache.Be very careful though, Western Digital has two models, one with 2MB cache and one with 8MB cache:Model WD1200BB ---> 2MB cache (don't get this)Model WD1200JB ---> 8MB cache (this is the fast one)Make sure the model ends with "JB" instead of "BB". I believe they have smaller size drives with 8MB cache in the WDxxxxJB series, take a look at their wesbsite (it's on my original post).Best regards,J. Padron (KMIA)---

Ah, what problem does this fast harddrive fix? We have a 1.2 thunderbird with 512 meg of memory and once FS is loaded, what would these drives improve up on?ThanksBob

Bob, FS2002 constantly needs to access tons of scenery and texture files, load them, unload them as you fly. Your hard drive speed is one more component (alone with your CPU, RAM memory, video card speed and memory, virtual memory settings) that contributes to (or against) FS2002's performance. A blazing fast disk such as a 10000rpm SCSI disk or the WDxxxJB 8MB cache disk does contribute to your computer's overall performance.J. Padron (KMIA)---

I really don't see any pauses for loading of scenery unless I change airports via the "select airport" function. Where else should I see this improvement, keeping in mind I have 512 meg of memory and I don't detect the "swap file" being used at all in my flights? Now when I use a program like Photoshop/PaintShopPro and have several layers at 600 dpi on an 8X10, well that is a different story. Yes, it is swapping data in out as I use the various functions and I sometimes must wait a measureable length of time for the update.Thanks much,Bob