Purchased a 128Gb Sandisk Flash Drive this week to store all add-ons etc for FSX as apposed to having too many DVD's.
After inserting it into the computer I found it was of the type where it encrypts everything and you have to have a password etc. Not wanting to have to sign in everytime to use access it I formatted it no problem, I can now just save what I need without all the hassle of passwords etc. however, when I went to properties it showed that I only have 116Gb instead of 128Gb of space available. I know that some space is reserved and you never get the full amount advertised as actual storage space but think that 116GB free out of 128GB is there something amiss?
Many thanks in advance
Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.
This page might cast a little light. My calculations have a decimal gigabyte as 0.93 of a binary gigabyte which would give you about 119Gb. That number seems to be a common denominator in interweb "complaints".
Maybe the other 3GB is on another partition on the key where Sandisk hid their unwantedware. Disk Manager should reveal the extra partition if it exists.
HTH, Paul
It's not a 'bird', it's an aeroplane or an aircraft
Nigel,
I think I have the same Sandisk drive as you. Mine shows 117gb capacity (126,656,724,992 bytes) I also have the Sandisk Secure Access on mine with a folder of the same name sans spaces and "RunSanDiskSecureAccess_Win.exe" in the root. But I don't ever use it and have never been asked for a password. Possible that .exe file was running automatically on your drive. Anyway it is not needed but I left it on because the files sizes are minimal.
A flash drive is (or is like) a SSD?
I take it that they can be formatted (from Nigel's opening post); but IIRC, they either can't, or shouldn't be, defragged?
Are they less reliable than an internal SSD?
btw, I received no replies to my request for advice on replacing drives, and have now ordered a new 1Tb mechanical drive, so that I can clone my existing HD (reported by W7 as failing) cheaply ($80.00) and quickly, before I lose all.
I also ordered a 120Gb SSD which I plan to reinstall all my FSX stuff onto.
the purpose of defragging is to reduce the head movement on mechanical drives when reading files from the disc. This is done by bringing the pieces of files together or as close together as possible. It's a (perhaps unfortunate) part of Windows file systems design that they can split a file and plonk bits all over the disk looking for space(s) to put it.
Flash drives and SSDs don't have mechanical heads so don't need defragmenting. My tool of choice (Defraggler at http://www.piriform.com/) actually stops you trying to defragment an SSD. I've never tried to defrag a flash drive as performance on these has never been an issue for me. If you could do it, especially on an SSD, all you'd really achieve is to use up the valuable read/write cycles that is still a limitation on the life of these drives. That said, the life of SSDs is now so good that they're mainstream in laptops as the only drive.
In terms of reliability I think you're comparing oranges and apples really. You wouldn't use an external flash drive the same way as an internal SSD (would you?). In any case I'd be happy to use SSDs these days. My C: drive is in fact a 256Gb SSD. The only issue for me is the cost per Gb. I still have mechanical drives for my others. They only hold data so performance isn't much of an issue.
HTH, Paul
It's not a 'bird', it's an aeroplane or an aircraft
Hi Paulsl, just read the link you provided and that explains it well so very many thanks.
Nigel2, for your infromation I got rid of the Sandisk Secure Access that was in mine by deleting it then just for good measure I formatted the sandisk afterwards. If I had anything confidential to save then I would have kept it but getting to the age now whereby remembering all the passwords I have for various sites etc. I would have big trouble in accessing all the FSX files saved on it should I ever lose my secret list of passwords!!
Paul, noticed that you and Mike were on about SSD Drives and defragging. Sometime in the future, maybe next year I will be looking for a new computer especially since Nvidia are releasing a new video card this autumn (will wait until I have seen the reviews - see link). However, I had been toying with the idea of having one with an SSD Drive for FSX and also my operating system as SSD's are I believe are much quicker.
Are SSD's suitable for FSX?
Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.
Well, a quick Google came up with this and this helpful articles. The second talks about fragmentation for Mike
Ultimately an SSD is just another form of storage and there's really no difference from HDDs apart from speed and cost. SSDs are particularly good for programs that you want loaded into memory quickly so yes they're suitable for FSX. I have my SSD devoted to programs as far as I can. All cached stuff (temporary files, browser caches, etc) is redirected to HDDs. When I say programs I also have the operating system on the SSD (you're going to love how quickly an SSD O/S boots up ). If you have reason (and the wallet ) to have the O/S and FSX on two SSDs, go for it.
Paul
It's not a 'bird', it's an aeroplane or an aircraft
Hi Paul,
Many thanks for your input.
I was aware of what defragging was, I've watched the animated process on Windows, as it shifts files and skips bad areas etc.
I understand more fully now, why it's not needed on a SSD, so thanks again.
My retailer tells me to do pretty much what you've done, putting Windows on the SSD, and if it will fit, try putting FSX there as well.
Do you know how much W7 takes up? Will I have anything worthwhile left on the 120Gb SSD?
Do you keep your aircraft and scenery on the same drive as your FSX prog?
Update on my position:
My replacement schedule is being brought forward fast.
I can't trust anything that's being reported:
I ran a W7 disk check and it told me there were no errors "Vol is clean"
Iolo's System Mechanic told me the same.
This morning, I had 3 non-starts with BOOT DISK FAILURE.
Fourth attempt worked as normal, so I now have an emergency DVD with the boot/repair stuff loaded.
The retailer rang today, letting me know that the gear has arrived, so it looks like a 100km round dash to plug the bits in before the wheels fall off completely.
). If you have reason (and the wallet 
) to have the O/S and FSX on two SSDs, go for it.