The OS is constantly reading and writing to the C drive. In Win Vista and Win 7 (and Win the C drive has special security applied to it. FS9 / FSX / P3D etc are more read than write so having them on a separate disk means that they aren't contesting with the OS for reads from the same disk. TBH its not just an FS thing, my boss in work is big into his photography and he uses a separate drive for his Lightroom catalogues for much the same reasons.
Paul. That P3D migration tool looks very good and seems to allow FSX programs to be loaded successfully into P3D. Although it doesn't work if FSX is on the same drive. So I think I'll revert to our (your!) Plan A and try an exclusive P3D install first using that tool if I want to load some FSX scenery. ORBX won't support their FSX scenery in P3D partly because of the installer, partly because of the license and I'm sure I read that there were one or two minor differences. But they are converting them.
If I decide I'd rather go back to FSX until P3D is further developed I can always delete the migration tool before installing anything. I wonder if there is any benefit in partitioning the FS drive to separate the two sims. If they are on D and E drives it wouldn't confuse the installer. What do you think, Ben?
Paul K wrote:
I don't think any of the other guys have gone exclusively P3D yet so I'm sure most are running it on the same disk
It's worth keeping FSX installed, as P3D is updated at approx 6 month intervals. As (currently), a clean install of P3D is required with each update, migrating some files from FSX (I have encountered some installers that won't install to P3D) makes life a little easier.
That's about the only reason I still have FSX installed. I always fly in P3D.
Regards
Kevin
Stratospheric traces, of our transitory flight.
Trails of condensation, held in narrow paths of white...
the C drive has special security applied to it. FS9 / FSX / P3D etc are more read than write so having them on a separate disk means that they aren't contesting with the OS for reads from the same disk. TBH its not just an FS thing, my boss in work is big into his photography and he uses a separate drive for his Lightroom catalogues for much the same reasons. 
