XP/Windows Setup, System Optimizing and Drivers

[BobbyH]

NickN,
I registered long enough to thank you very much. If this thread were a book; I would be happy to send you money for it. To anyone who doubts your ability, shame on them.

4 years ago, I bought a Dell XPS 600 with RAID 0 that ran FS9 well. When FSX came out, it would not run on the Dell. I gave up on FSX and actually got out of Microsoft Flight Sim and went to other projects.

But I always followed your posts here, then on Phil Taylor's blog, and finally on AVSIM. I began to see a pattern to your work. Finally, about a week ago, I took everything you wrote and rebuilt my Dell XPS because I had faith in your work rather than spending a lot of money on a new system.

I found a Pentium 965EE processor for $99.00. I threw out the dual 7 series video cards and found a single 8800GTX. I broke the RAID 0 and  and loaded XP 64 OS and installed 4GB of RAM.

I followed your posts to the letter including NHancer and formatting the 2nd drive to 65K for FSX.

Nick, FSX is a joy to fly. It is crisp and smooth. I don't know what the frame rate is, I don't look at it. All I know is it is crisp and smooth. I can't ask for any better.

So Nick, your advice took a 4 year old Dell system and made it work. It took me 2 days of following each of your steps, slowly and deliberately, and it worked.

I just want to tell you that you have made a difference for me and I appreciate your work.

Thank you !!!!!

BobbyH

[skoker]

Anyone wanna take an hour to explain it to me,  I just don't get it... :-/

[thetford569]

I have a dual boot system of windows xp64 and windows 7.  FSX is installed in XP 64 but on a seperate hard drive.  The two OS's are on a single hard drive but in different partitions.  How would I need to defrag the system using nick's instructions?  Do I need to do each OS partition from inside it's own OS or can I defrag everything from inside XP?  For example is it good to defrag the Windows 7 partition from the O&O software inside XP64?

Brandon

[NickN]

When it comes to 2 or more OS's you MUST perform the defrags by installing and running the defrag software from within the OS being optimized, but DO NOT run the software on a different OS from within another. Skip that partition.

Now, in the case where you may have 2 OS's and one FSX drive then either OS can be used to perform the defrags. It wont matter because the separate FSX drive will be optimized exactly the same. There is no reason to do it from both OS's

[coalpedlar]

Basic Help needed.
I've read all this on set-up & optimizing, but some of it is greek to me.  I have FSX- not Delux- and a Sony PC with XP.  From what I've read I should install SP!?  or SP 2?  or both? FSUIPC?  I know how to defrag, but don't have any idea what defrag is on this PC- I have 2 Gig of RAM, which I suppose is enough to expect decent performance, isn't it?

Thank you.

[Rainbowtide]

i followed the instructions step by step and it works well - thank you!

i just purchase a new rig with win7 64bit version (especially for fsx) and i a wondering if nicks wrote a similar tweak for that os system?
would appreciate any feedback or link to such a script thank you
marc

[ShaneG_old]

i followed the instructions step by step and it works well - thank you!

i just purchase a new rig with win7 64bit version (especially for fsx) and i a wondering if nicks wrote a similar tweak for that os system?
would appreciate any feedback or link to such a script thank you
marc

Indeed he did!

Here you go : http://forums.simviation.com/cgi-bin/ya ... 1271029896

[rm454bn]

Nick,
Any recommendations yet for O&O defrag v12? I'm using the trial version of 11.5 currently.

thanks,

rpm.

[ShaneG_old]

[quote]
[size=12][i][b] "NickN has said that he will not be frequenting this or any internet flight sim forums regularly anymore.
(see posting here: http://forums.simviation.com/cgi-bin/ya ... 1271029896)

He has already shared a lot of his expertise in the information which we have here in our forum sections.

[Blades]

Nick, I see that Disktrix has a new Ultimate Defrag version 8 that seems to be new. I've heard that this product allows some manipulation of the MFT for better performance. What do you think?

-Jim

I use ultimate and am happy with the results imho it works better than what is supplied with Xp. It does allow you to place files where you want them. It comes with a manual that does have to be read.
Blades

[Ahali20]

please let me know what steps do you follow to facilitate the Windows XP setup, system optimization, and driver installation process? Do you have any favorite special software or techniques when completing these tasks?