Dedicated Drives For simulator Use ~ Away from operating drive

[bifo]

Haven't been on this site long but it's good to feel at home. My question ~ I use ssd's on my HTPC for various reasons. I have in the past always mounted FSX on 'C' drive can I mount it on perhaps 'E' to free up space on 'C' . Having done that can I use another drive perhaps 'F' to mount a newly bought XPlane10. I know I'm greedy. The silence and heat issues of ssd's, besides the load up speeds are suited to the HTPC environment. Many thanks for any help
In order to do this can I just cut and paste the programme

[Daube]

You are free to install FSX on any drive that you want.
I would simply advise you to do it "wisely", which means first uninstall the addons (if any), then uninstall the SPs, then uninstall FSX, then reinstall FSX and the SPs on the new drive, with frequent reboots between the major steps.

For example, my FSX is installed on d:\Flight Simulator X\, and my D drive is a SSD. The OS is on C:\Windows\ of course.

Do not attempt to "move" or "copy paste" the FSX folder, because this is tricky to do, and it can mess everything up, from addon programs to FSX uninstall program. A proper uninstall and reinstall is the way to go.

I do not own XPlane so I'm not 100% sure, but I believe you are also free to install XPlane anywhere you want.

[bifo]

Daube ~ Thanks for your courteous and comprehensive reply

[Dave71K]

Hey on this subject, does putting FSX on a dedicated drive improve performance much?
I was thinking of getting an SSD and putting FSX on it, so is it actually worth it?

[Daube]

Hey on this subject, does putting FSX on a dedicated drive improve performance much?
I was thinking of getting an SSD and putting FSX on it, so is it actually worth it?

Yes it is. You will experience much faster loading times and smoother micro-loadings during flights. However, do NOT expect a single additionnal FPS.
My FSX is on a SSD and I'm never going back to normal hardrives.

[Dave71K]

So there will be a reduction in blurries etc while the scenery loads?

[Daube]

So there will be a reduction in blurries etc while the scenery loads?

Hmm I don't think so. It's mainly the CPU that impacts the loading of the textures. The normal harddrives are already fast enough to read them, but it's the CPU that works to show them with the appropriate resolution.

[Dave71K]

So there will be a reduction in blurries etc while the scenery loads?

Hmm I don't think so. It's mainly the CPU that impacts the loading of the textures. The normal harddrives are already fast enough to read them, but it's the CPU that works to show them with the appropriate resolution.

So an FSX dedicated SSD would just increase the loading bar speed? But give no real performance improvements during the flight?
Seems a bit pointless I don't mind waiting a minute or to for the loading bar to fill, it gives me time to prepare my pre flight coffee

[Gypsy_Baron]

On the topic of FSX, and components, you can also place your addon aircraft and scenery files anywhere
you wish on your system. For instance, I have several "Aircraft" folders named "FSX_AI", "FSX_Military_AI",
"Propliners", "Aircraft" (the old FSP nomenclature, thus FS9 port-overs go there".

These are spread around on my system and FSX is "made aware" of their existence through entries in
the FSX.CFG file "Main" section. One of the benefits of this "method" is that one can easily selectively
enable/disable various categories of SimObjects just by commenting out, ot not, the entries.
As an example:

Code: Select all

[Main]
User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter
SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes
SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft
SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles
SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats
//SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals
SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Misc
//SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Aircraft
//SimObjectPaths.6=Y:\FSX AI Aircraft
//SimObjectPaths.7=Y:\FSX Military AI
//SimObjectPaths.8=I:\FSX Military Aircraft
//SimobjectPaths.9=I:\FSX A6 Aircraft
//SimObjectPaths.10=SimObjects\Propliner Aircraft
//SimObjectPaths.11=ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAI_AIRCRAFT


The above reverts FSX SimObjects back close to default, since I have commented out several
types. Note also that you need to supply the full path to those "external" SimObjects folders.

For scenery, since to add it via the GUI Scenery Library you "point" FSX to the location of the folder
for the scenery you wish to add, it can be placed anywhere. matter of fact, the entire "Addon Scenery"
folder can be aliased to a separate drive with an empty "Addon Scenery" folder located in the
FSX directory. I have two FSX installs, one on my XP Pro x32 partition and one on my Win7 X64 partiton (dual-boot).

My "J:" drive contains all my Addon Scenery and is aliased to the empty folders in both those FSX installs.
Thus both installs "share" the common "Addon Scenery" folder. FSX is on my "I:" drivein Xp and
on my "X:" drive in Win7.

   Paul (just some food for thought) 

[bifo]

Well Gypsy_Baron. Your input is very interesting from my point of view, I've pondered over that since I started small capacity drives. Can my server take any strain aswell ie., Windows Home Server 2011 ?
And while on here do peeps believe 2004 can work well on the same pc perhaps again using another small capacity drive. Many thanks to you all ...cheers.
I know it gets complicated logging what drive does what....

[bifo]

Dave 71k ~ I use ssd's because my HTPC sits underneath my TV{TV doubles as my monitor}

[Dave71K]

Probably not for me then, my HDD is 1Tb so I'm not short of space I was just looking for something to improve smoothness of texture loading etc.

[bifo]

Can't comment or give advice on your needs being honest. All I can say is I used big drives and found them distracting in my living room environment. Because of the fast load up of win7, (then unless told) everything else feels faster. But I don't know about the real technicalities. It's just my "feel good factor".