Classic British Flight Sim

I've just bought a new laptop and transferred my FS9 installation across from my old laptop. In the past this has always been rather daunting so as I had a few days spare I thought I'd give the easy way a try first. It worked very well with only a couple of minor hiccups so I thought I'd share the experience. Both laptops are running Vista Home Premium and I back-up weekly to an external hard drive using the standard Vista back-up prog. I wanted to try restoring the FS folders from the back-up file of the old machine to the new one.

Firstly I installed FS9.1 then told back-up to restore all the folders over the top of the installation and merge or overwrite everything. I didn't expect it to work but it did. All the aircraft and add-on scenery are there and working - with the following exceptions. Some of the DLL files in the modules folder didn't like being compressed and de-compressed and went missing so I transferred the uncompressed modules folder from the old installation. And I had to re-install Glacier Bay because I was getting double coastlines. But apart from that everything seems to be working fine and it saved me a lot of time. Admittedly I don't have a very complicated installation but this is worth considering if you ever need to re-install or transfer.

BTW. I bought a laptop because that's what I prefer to use, even though they're not ideal for simming. If anybody's looking for a laptop that will run FS9 well at a reasonable price this one looks like good value. It's a 16" Acer core2duo 2.13Ghz, 4Gb RAM and a 1Gb NVidia 9600M GT card. It's giving a Vista Experience rating of 5.0 (out of 5.9) which is not bad for £680. Tesco Direct (plus clubcard points and 6 months interest free credit if you use a Tesco credit card). Needlessto say FS9 screams along with all sliders to the right. The possible downside (as mentioned elsewhere) is the 16:9 aspect ratio but the extra width does allow it a separate number keypad.

Ian

There is another way Ian...On the new computer you just install a Minimal version of FS9 from the original CDs...Then straight away delete the folder "Flight Simulator 9". This has now registered FS9 in your new computer...Now copy the entire "Flight Simulator 9" folder from the old machine to the same position that you have just deleted the newly installed version in the new machine. If you want your old configuration then you would have to copy your old FS9.cfg from the old machine and let it overwrite the one in your new machine. Also if you want your old saved flights then you would need to copy over the folder called "Flight Simulator Files" from here:-

X:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files

Large copy overs can be done with a biggish USB chip...I have a 16 GB one which is pretty handy but I imagine it could also be done with writable DVDs. If I was doing it I would just copy over my Flight Simulator 9 folder from where it is "Duplicated" on one of my external drives...My latest one is a huge 1.5 TBs :o

BTW...This method moves your exact version over so no need to upgrade to 9.1 again...It also contains your old huge file called "USEnglishBig", which on my machine is now 455254 KBs

Thanks, Peter. That sounds even easier! I'll print out your advice and tuck it away until the next time.

Ian

I've been thinking of upgrading the PC - or more likely replacing it.

The one niggling thought about a transfer via external hard drive is that some download payware appears to use registry or reference files, scattered around the C: Drive, to keep naughty behaviour under control. I lost a hard drive a while back but had backups of all the relevant exe files except for the Captain Sim F-104. (Just don't tell SWMBO what that rather too large pile of CDs/DVDs is for) Downloads are good for bypassing the SWMBO revenue controls, but a pain in keeping track of the master files/unlock codes.

Although I have the email info about the order, it does appear that others have not had the greatest luck in getting responses from CS. On the premise that one day I may knuckle down and get the hang of it, does anyone know where CS puts the info so that I can transfer it/back it up?

It was a spur of the moment purchase during one of their £5 sales, so no biggy if I do lose it. After all there is a perfectly good freeware Draaken that I have yet to get to grips with if I decide to learn about digging fast jet holes in the scenery. Admittedly I hardly ever take the F-104 out for a crash (bl**dy thing keeps telling you how badly you're flying it as well - so my son knows when to come in and watch the crashes )

Come to think of it I have other payware jets that hardly ever see the light of day, perhaps I should get some use out of them too. Actually on a £/flying hour basis for any of my payware, it's just as well SWMBO doesn't know about the pile of DVDs....

Exits, looking furtive.