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tunnelcat

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Posts posted by tunnelcat

  1. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    I paid for the ride on that very bird back in 1997 when it and the Collings Foundation B-29 came to my town. It cost me $300, but it was the best money I'd ever spent. It was supposed to be a short half hour flight too, but for some reason, the pilot stayed aloft for almost an hour. I guess he didn't have another flight that day and gave us all a big treat. Once airborne, the group of us got to crawl all around the aircraft, the nose area, the cockpit and everywhere else. We got a spectacular view of the town and the valley. It was the most fantastic thing I've ever done. I even took a long video, but I've got to find the file or transfer it from the DVD I burned, edit it and upload it to YouTube for everyone to watch.

    It really saddens me that those pilots (the same guys who took us up since they'd been doing it for over 20 years) and many of the passengers were killed. Those pilots had the best job in the world. It's also a shame that we've lost another flying B-17.😪

    https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a29355534/nine-o-nine-b-17/

  5. Posted

    Solved, I think. I dragged my old Dell XP machine out of the basement and set it up, hoping it would boot. Of course, the CMOS battery was deader than a doornail because it had been sitting down there retired in a box for years, so I had to select which drive to boot from in the BIOS when I powered it on. Actually got the creaky old dust collector booted into XP amazingly enough. Talk about an ancient OS. Thankfully it had no login password or I'd have been hosed. So in XP, File Explorer had no trouble reading the files on all disks, except Disk 2. For some reason, opening the tree on that disk and trying to copy files from the left pane to another folder on the hard drive hung the whole computer, even in XP. However, I did manage to copy the files and burn 3 separate data DVD+R's using my old Sonic DVD burning software since it didn't require using File Explorer. Good thing the DVD RW drive still worked, which is what I needed anyway, because the DVD ROM drive was locked closed. So after all that, I now had a set of backup data disks for FSX and I thought I was home free. But oh no, when I inserted the newly burned disks into the DVD drive on my older Win 7 computer, File Explorer still hung. DITH! Frustrated after this monumental waste of my time, I sat and thought for a moment. There's got to be a way to copy the contents of the disk to another folder without opening the stupid file tree or searching the web for another program, my last resort. Since Explorer always hung attempting this, I decided to do something ludicrously simple. I put the original FSX Disk 1 back into the DVD drive on my old Win 7 computer, canceled out of the autoplay options, opened Explorer clean, right clicked on the drive icon, being careful to not open the file tree in either pane, and selected "Copy" from the menu. Then I ran the cursor up to my "Documents" Folder above, right clicked on that and did a "Paste" (threw it into the top level). Lo and behold, the computer dutifully copied the contents of that FSX disk to the "My Documents Folder" and called the folder FSX Disk 1. Hallelujah, I was elated it worked, so I did this with the 2 other disks. I then copied these folders onto 3 different flash drives for good measure, one for each disk. Since this seems to work on Win 7, I'll try this on my new Win 10 computer, only I'll try to copy the disk contents to an external 3T drive this time using this same method. If it doesn't work, I'll have to resort to Reader's suggestion above or hope the flash drives I made work in the future.

    So my question to Reader is, would these files copied this way suffice as backups, or would creating an ISO file be more reliable? I'd have to get an ISO burning program to do that, so have you got a recommendation along those lines?

    overspeed3, I so seriously thought about doing that very thing that I put the Steam version of FSX in my Steam wish list to wait for a future sale. The problem is, I just bought the U.S., Alaska and Hawaii versions of FSGenesis on sale for 50% off during July + 10% off Tuesdays at pcaviator, an add-on that unfortunately only works in FSX-MS. I know, I could've bought TopoSim, but it wasn't on sale. I also have the PMDG 747X I bought years ago from Aerosoft and a wonderfully detailed Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport add-on that also only works in FSX-MS. I don't want to give those up. Besides, the Hong Kong Airport add-on, a commercial product, is no longer available.

  6. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    OK, I found this answer on FlighSim's forum.

    https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?304070-Installing-FSX-without-DVD-drive

    Apparently, one can copy the FSX disks to a flash drive, so no copy protection and one can install the simulation just fine from any media. Out of frustration, I might just dig out of the box my really old Dell XP system, which I was just getting ready to recycle, and see if I can read the disks using that. Surely that DVD drive is old enough to read FSX's disks without throwing a fit and falling in it. 🙄

     

     

  7. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    9 hours ago, Wobbie said:

    Do the disks actually run? (can you install the sim from them?

    I remember, years ago, trying to copy the disks, & it seems there is some sort of copy protection on them.

    If possible, why not do a fresh install, then copy that install to a portable drive as backup.

    Then, if you do a copy/paste from that backup, you can use Flight1's Registry Repair Tool to set the FSX.exe to the registry.

    Good Luck,

    Robin 

    Yes, the disks run. I can install them too but only if I don't try to search the file trees on the disks in File Explorer, which pretty much locks up File Explorer on every system I've tried it on and seems to indicate there is some sort of copy protection. But apparently, others here were able to copy the files off the disks with no issues, so I don't know what to think and I'd love to know their secret to success. Right now, I do have a fresh install sitting on my Win 10 system, so I will follow your advice and back up the directory to a flash drive before I start making .cfg changes and adding aircraft and scenery, especially since Win 10 1903 is going to get pushed onto my system very soon. Any other directories that should be backed up from the C drive? My FSX installation is on a separate drive. I'll also get Flight 1's Registry Repair Tool in case I need to fix things. I'd rather be flying than debugging software at this point.

  8. Posted

    airernie, 2 of the systems I tried it on don't have Intel Rapid Start.

    charliearon, those disks are pristine. No scratches or finger prints. No haze either. I even gave them a nice cleaning with my glasses cleaning solution that's safe for plastic. They look brand new. They've just been stored in a room temperature closet for the years I've owned them, when I wasn't installing FSX that is. Since I seem to have FSX installed, is there a way to back it up once it's already installed if I need to repair it? It hasn't been modified or added to yet.

  9. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    I'm about ready to tear my hair out. I'm trying to copy my FSX disks to ANYTHING, flash drive, external drive, even a computer file on my hard drive, but for the life of me, I can't get File Explorer to read any of the disks. Any other data DVD's work fine, so it's not the drives. If I put ANY of the 3 FSX disks into the drive and then open a File Explorer tree, it literally hangs and takes forever to display the files. It's like watching paint dry, only the paint never dries. The drive head literally clatters as it's trying to read the data on a couple of the drives I've tried. The file icons DO show up under the drive letter the left pane, but it takes forever or most of the time not at all to display the folders and contents in the right pane. If I close File Explorer while any FSX disk is still in the drive and reopen it, almost nothing gets displayed. It's really borked. I have to eject the disk to make it function again. I also get cdrom paging errors in the Event Viewer after going through all this. None of these disks have any dirt, warpage or damage. They're pristine. To top things off, I've tried it on 4 different computers, one Windows 10, three others Windows 7 and the one Win 7 system already has FSX installed and running, so things worked fine one time way back when. One drive is Blu-Ray, the others are DVD burner drives, one at last 10 years old. I managed to get FSX installed onto my new Win 10 system and the ONLY way that happened was to right click on the drive icon, WITHOUT OPENING THE FILE TREE FOR THAT DRIVE, and selecting "Install FSX" in the menu that popped up. But the rub is, it was such a PITA to install from the disks I want to back them up and preserve them to a different media for future re-installs or repairs, but so far, I've been stymied. I'm not even sure if my FSX installation isn't corrupt on the Win 10 system, even though I can open FSX and perform a quick free flight. I don't want to waste time installing GB's of mesh and scenery for naught if it's henky.You'd think that if the disks were unreadable or had errors that I wouldn't have been able to install FSX the first place. I hate the idea of having to buy the Steam version because my PMDG 747X is not be compatible, as far as I know. Any help would be appreciated here.

  14. Posted

    I just got FSX installed on Windows 10Pro, from the disks. The 3 biggest issues I ran into was that my modern Blu-Ray drive had trouble reading the disks. What I finally did was insert disk 1, right click on the dvd drive icon in File Explorer (I DIDN'T try to open the file tree because I previously found doing that caused the drive heads to seek like crazy and clatter). When you right click on the icon, you get one option to install FSX. From then on, just follow the prompts. The second issue was that the install seemed to hang on a part of installation that was performing an "application removal". What that entailed, I don't know, but it finally completed after a little bit of patience. The only other issue I ran into was that even though I was able to validate FSX, I got an error because Acceleration failed to validate. After a quick search here and a tiny regedit workaround, I got it fixed. After all that, I'm now inclined to purchase the Steam Edition just to avoid the hassle of modern DVD drives not being able to read older CD's and DVD's. Like rhumbaflappy indicated above, the Steam option looks a lot more convenient.

  15. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    Thanks, I figured that out after opening FSX for some settings changes which I then left on the Free Flight page when I closed. When FSX was opened again, it was on the Free Flight page. It just freaked me out when I first installed FSX since hadn't used it for over 2 years due to family medical reasons (that was on my old system too) and saw the Home page change. Now all I have to do is install my add-ons, peripherals and their software, do some tweaks, DX10 Fixer, Nvidia Inspector and so forth. What a job to rebuild this program to where it shines.

  16. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    pete_auau, the installer never asked me. It just installed. The only thing I was allowed to check was the Simconnect install. I did download the version that says it's for FSX, FSX-SE and P3D. There was a separate version for the newer P4D. Is there a way to check which version of Simconnect I have in FSX? [EDIT - Nevermind, I found them. I've got all three versions installed that came with the disks.]

    Reader, yes I mean the Home screen. So what you're saying is that FSX is now picking up the FSinsider Home page and that's why it's showing the Steam version? As far as I know my FSX is still the disk version, other than the Home screen. I'm almost tempted to purchase the Steam version eventually because it was such a PITA to install from the old disks on my new LG Blu-Ray drive. I'm not even sure I can install my disk-based addons because that drive seems so disinclined to read older CDs and DVDs. I might have to resort to copying their contents to flash drives on my old system just to install them on the new one.

    charliearon, my cfg looks just as you posted, except for the STARTUP_DEMO line which has no entry after it. Should I set SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=1 to 0?

  17. Posted

    I hope not. It does seem weird that REX Sky Force would actually alter the main menu title in the FSX Home menu to something I didn't install. I haven't even run the REX program yet to set thing up in FSX either. I wonder if it has something to do with Simconnect which was also installed. I am going to post on the REX forums, but I have to wait for the verification process to complete first. Thanks.

  18. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    OK, this is a weird question. I managed to get my disk version of FSX and Acceleration fully installed on my new Windows 10 Pro system after a few curses, DVD drive read issues and one validation error. Then I installed REX Sky Force 3D since I'd just bought it on sale. Imagine my surprise when I launched FSX, because it now proudly proclaims in the banner on the Home menu it's the Steam Edition of FSX. WHAT! I installed no such thing! Is this going to be a problem because I have a whole library of purchased add-ons just for this version or is it something common? I wasn't given any option to select the edition of FSX when I installed REX Sky Force either, so I know that's when the change happened. I'd like to install Active Sky for a weather engine, but I want to get this worked out first.

  19. Posted · Edited by tunnelcat

    I too got that same activation error. I was suspicious because I wasn't asked for the validation key when I installed Acceleration like I was for the main FSX install. So I stumbled onto this post, which was immensely helpful in pointing me to the right solution, but there is a small issue with the video. When the poster who supplied that handy video read off the number we need look for under the Class section in the registry, it sounded like he said "E" instead of "D" in the first set of numbers. After further searching, because I swear I hear an "E" and thus couldn't find the number, I found the correct path and I'm posting it for others if they don't want to get frustrated trying to transcribe the number from the audio on the video. I found that my entry was listed as partmgr, no caps for the "P" and the "M", hence the error.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\CLASS\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
     

    • Upvote 1

  20. Posted

    If your rig has a newer DVD drive or a Blu-Ray drive, you may run into some issues with older cd/dvd discs. I tried installing FSX on my new Windows 10 Pro system from my original disks using my LG Blu-Ray drive. What I found was that if I tried to look at ANY the files in the file tree on that drive in File Explorer, my DVD drive would start rattling like the head was frantically seeking all over the place and it was having a lot of difficulty reading what was on the disk. I could never launch setup.exe this way because I could never even see the file tree. It would just plain hang. What I finally did was eject and reinsert the disk in the drive, open File Explorer but NOT the file tree for the FSX disk. I then right clicked on the DVD drive's icon and was presented with a couple of options, one option was to install FSX. That's the only way I could get my system to install FSX from the disks. So the drive could install the files from the disks just fine, but I couldn't read the list of those files from the disk list in File Explorer. I'm stumped.

  23. Posted

    Maintenance?  Things bust.  The longer they would wait the longer the risk of not being able to use it.

     

    True. I'm just trying to think outside the box here. Maybe they won't wait very long to do their nasty terrorist deed then. However, I can't think of any other reason somebody would actually want to fly off into the unknown with an airliner that big, other than to steal it for an unkown terrorist reason or ransom, or intentionally crash it as a terrorist act. There have been no ransom requests if they did land it somewhere, nor has any wreckage been found yet. And why would some terrorists crash an airliner into a deserted tract of open ocean where no one would find the evidence to their actions? These monsters always seem to want to show the world their evil deeds. Time will tell, unfortunately, for those on board.

  24. Posted · Edited by n4gix
    Removed excessive quote!

    I think Ed brings up an interesting point about using physical mediums.  I remember in the early days of FS9, back when download speeds were too slow for the size of the programs we were buying.

     

    There another reason for using disks. Some of us lowlifes that live in little towns only have a 1.5 Mb/s connection, or worse. The telecoms haven't seen fit to upgrade my area....yet. That's why I buy the disks, which by the way, are getting harder and harder to purchase these days as these lazy software developers begin to rely on downloading just to sell their software. Waiting a week or more for some of these huge downloads is just not feasible, especially for scenery and terrain downloads. I'd rather watch paint dry. I've already had to leave my system on for days because many of these new games are essentially released as beta, which then requires the buyer to download a huge patch(s) just to fix the unfinished software. :angry:

     

    In reference to the original thread, I just cloned my OS drive to install it to a SSD. My FSX installation is still on my D: drive, which is an HHD. Some changes were made in the BIOS to do this of course. I'm almost afraid to fire up FSX after reading this. Am I going to scream when I do and have to reinstall all of FSX just because of the DRM of my addons?

  25. Posted

    It gets weirder and weirder. It appears that 2 separate systems were shut down at 2 different times, so it had to be a deliberate action undertaken by someone in the cockpit. Plus, it appears that the plane was equipped with a Boeing data system that apparently was pinging a satellite for about 4 hours AFTER all radio contact was lost, so apparently, it was still airborne with the engines running. The search area has been increased to a circle of 2500 miles!

     

    I have some conjecture here. Someone, either the pilots or a cockpit intruder didn't want that plane tracked when they deviated from the original flight path, so they shut off all the tracking and communication apparatus of the aircraft. This indicates that this was a deliberate act of terrorism or a hijacking. What these hijackers didn't know about was that Boeing data system that was pinging the satellite all the while they were in the air. So either the plane was deliberately crashed into a vast area of ocean to hide the act and create fear, or it landed somewhere with intentions unknown. Now if these hijackers were creative, what's to stop them from landing the plane somewhere, hide it for a while, load it up with explosives and fly it to some destination as a weapon like was done on 9/11?

     

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/communications-systems-aboard-malaysian-jet-were-shut-down-separately/

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