just wondered if anyone has experience of running fs on an external hard-drive, my problem is
I've got fs on 3 machines (each a different era ie gw3 etc,etc) and 'er indoors has blown a fuse and wants one of the machines for her business use, so....I think I could save a packet of HD space and only have one piece of hardware if I put fs on an external hd, any comments good or bad appreciated
ttfn
Pete
FS on an external Hard-drive?
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FS on an external Hard-drive?
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Re: FS on an external Hard-drive?
One thought about an external drive is speed of data flow compared to an internal drive - if the external drive is SATA (eSATA) then should be ok. I have an external USB drive attached for general use and it tends to power down and hence there can be several seconds wait while it gets going again - not want you want when a whole load of textures need to be loaded.
Not sure if you are hoping to run several versions of FS off the external drive - there are other people who have asked this and been answered, but my initial impression is that FS keeps its location in the registry so how does it manage multiple installs at different locations?
Just some initial thoughts.
Ian
Not sure if you are hoping to run several versions of FS off the external drive - there are other people who have asked this and been answered, but my initial impression is that FS keeps its location in the registry so how does it manage multiple installs at different locations?
Just some initial thoughts.
Ian
Re: FS on an external Hard-drive?
Hi Pete,
External Drives shouldn't be used for installed apps... in this case FS. I'm assuming you have 3 different versions of FS9 installed or are you on the Dark side too?
You need some technical knowledge, but the only way you "should" be able to do this would with 2 (or 4) physical hard disks, if you have 4 disks, disks 2,3 and 4 would each represent an era, if you only have one disk, partition it into 3 so that each partition represents an era. I.e. you build a PC, "C" drive has the OS and all the usual stuff. the the "D" drive has all of you FS addons installed.
To start off only format the first parttion (or disk drive) and assign it drive letter D. Install FS as you like. Then backup your entire D drive to DVD or an external back drive etc.. Using disk management from the "manage" option when you right click on my computer, change the drive letter of your D drive to something random like "X". You will get a warning about installed programs becoming un usable, this is expected. Then go to the second, as yet unformated partion or disk, format it and give it the drive letter D. Then restore the back up of the D drive you made earlier to this new partition and reboot. Now you will have the same FS you had earlier. Tweek this to represent the era you want, once your happy, (making sure FS isn't riunning) go back to disk management and change this disks drive letter from D to another different letter, e.g. "Y" you'll get the same warning again about installed programs being unusable etc, and again this is expected. reboot. Finally format your 3rd partition or disk and give it the drive letter D. Restore your D drive again from the original backup, tweek this version to the era of your choice. Now all you have to do to fly in a specific era is make that drive with that era's config the D drive and reboot. Note separate physical drives (would probably be better if you have the space for 4 disks in yor machine.)
Aside from a drive letter you can give a volume a label, so I would sugest labeling each as the era for which you have configured it. The label will remain intact regardless of what you set the drive letter to. In this way you can see which ever era is allocated as "D" will be the active one.
So example in practice...
Your flying in the 80's, but you want to switch to the 60's
1. Close FS and any associated programs that are running from the "D" Drive.
2. Go to Disk Management and change the drive letter for the 80's drive from "D" to "Z" (for arguments sake)
Reboot
3. Go to Disk Management and change the drive letter for your 60's drive (lets imagine its currently "X") to "D"
Reboot
and off you go.
Things to bare in mind....
If you install something like active sky or a third party addon that writes to the windows registry, you ideally need to have all of these installed on the first version of the D drive so that they are then the same on each subsequent version.
There is no problem manually adding aircraft or scenery etc to an era when it isn't active as the D Drive as you can still copy and paste etc to the other drives, its only things that install using the registry that will give you a problem.
If after doing this you decide to install another third party product, lets say a weather engine or something that writes to the windows registry, that product will only be available on the D drive for the era on which you have installed it. It is not simply a case of changing the drive for each era and reinstalling the product, this could bite you in the bum, where the product has some sort of security activation.
I also suggest lots of backups!!!! just incase ;-)
External Drives shouldn't be used for installed apps... in this case FS. I'm assuming you have 3 different versions of FS9 installed or are you on the Dark side too?
You need some technical knowledge, but the only way you "should" be able to do this would with 2 (or 4) physical hard disks, if you have 4 disks, disks 2,3 and 4 would each represent an era, if you only have one disk, partition it into 3 so that each partition represents an era. I.e. you build a PC, "C" drive has the OS and all the usual stuff. the the "D" drive has all of you FS addons installed.
To start off only format the first parttion (or disk drive) and assign it drive letter D. Install FS as you like. Then backup your entire D drive to DVD or an external back drive etc.. Using disk management from the "manage" option when you right click on my computer, change the drive letter of your D drive to something random like "X". You will get a warning about installed programs becoming un usable, this is expected. Then go to the second, as yet unformated partion or disk, format it and give it the drive letter D. Then restore the back up of the D drive you made earlier to this new partition and reboot. Now you will have the same FS you had earlier. Tweek this to represent the era you want, once your happy, (making sure FS isn't riunning) go back to disk management and change this disks drive letter from D to another different letter, e.g. "Y" you'll get the same warning again about installed programs being unusable etc, and again this is expected. reboot. Finally format your 3rd partition or disk and give it the drive letter D. Restore your D drive again from the original backup, tweek this version to the era of your choice. Now all you have to do to fly in a specific era is make that drive with that era's config the D drive and reboot. Note separate physical drives (would probably be better if you have the space for 4 disks in yor machine.)
Aside from a drive letter you can give a volume a label, so I would sugest labeling each as the era for which you have configured it. The label will remain intact regardless of what you set the drive letter to. In this way you can see which ever era is allocated as "D" will be the active one.
So example in practice...
Your flying in the 80's, but you want to switch to the 60's
1. Close FS and any associated programs that are running from the "D" Drive.
2. Go to Disk Management and change the drive letter for the 80's drive from "D" to "Z" (for arguments sake)
Reboot
3. Go to Disk Management and change the drive letter for your 60's drive (lets imagine its currently "X") to "D"
Reboot
and off you go.
Things to bare in mind....
If you install something like active sky or a third party addon that writes to the windows registry, you ideally need to have all of these installed on the first version of the D drive so that they are then the same on each subsequent version.
There is no problem manually adding aircraft or scenery etc to an era when it isn't active as the D Drive as you can still copy and paste etc to the other drives, its only things that install using the registry that will give you a problem.
If after doing this you decide to install another third party product, lets say a weather engine or something that writes to the windows registry, that product will only be available on the D drive for the era on which you have installed it. It is not simply a case of changing the drive for each era and reinstalling the product, this could bite you in the bum, where the product has some sort of security activation.
I also suggest lots of backups!!!! just incase ;-)
Ben.
Re: FS on an external Hard-drive?
Ben clearly knows more about this than I do 
While checking out another site today, I found this in case it helps (although it very much contradicts what Ben has suggested)
http://www.com-central.net/index.php?na ... pic&t=3597
While checking out another site today, I found this in case it helps (although it very much contradicts what Ben has suggested)
http://www.com-central.net/index.php?na ... pic&t=3597
Re: FS on an external Hard-drive?
Just another way of doing it, and looks a bit easier, not sure how the registry woul like multiple versions of the same thing on the same hard drive though 
Do you write a batch file for each addon you have installed? This is probably OK for multiple FS9's where your not using Activesky (I'm just using that as an example) but if you have addons that write to the registry at install, it wouldn't work as the registry will be looking for c:\program files\microsoft games\flight simulator 9\fs9.exe and your actually running it from c:\program files\microsoft games\insertfoldernamehere\fs9.exe.
Simple yes, basic yes, will it work for anything a bit more complicated, probably not, probably why more folk haven't commented on it.
Do you write a batch file for each addon you have installed? This is probably OK for multiple FS9's where your not using Activesky (I'm just using that as an example) but if you have addons that write to the registry at install, it wouldn't work as the registry will be looking for c:\program files\microsoft games\flight simulator 9\fs9.exe and your actually running it from c:\program files\microsoft games\insertfoldernamehere\fs9.exe.Simple yes, basic yes, will it work for anything a bit more complicated, probably not, probably why more folk haven't commented on it.
Ben.