Take your scenery off your SSD drive to save space...by P38man

[Roger]

From a recent thread, a good idea to save space on your SSD...by P38man

My thoughts:
- do not buy an OCZ small SSD - there is a well documented "speed" issue with them and you will not know until after you have bought it whether it has that issue or not.
- 120GB is fine for an SSD - the slow parts are (1) starting the PC and (2) The "Choose Plane" button in FSX and on an SSD these are both much faster on the SSD - the scenery is not as slow as you might think (frankly if there is a difference I would need a stopwatch to determine it)
- why 120GB is OK? - because you can easily put your ORBX folder on your regular hard drive with this technique and save money.

Junction points
- you essentially are telling windows your Hard drive's new Orbx folder is your SSD's Orbx folder

How to
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1) turn of User Account Control and reboot machine
2) copy all ORBX directory from SSD to Hard Drive using copy and paste Check Shoprite Specials (https://www.ladysavings.com/publix-weekly-ad/?shoprite/) and Spar Specials (https://www.ladysavings.com/publix-weekly-ad/?spar/).
(copy to E:\ORBX - if E is the hard drive it may be another letter, usually if your OS is on SSD then that would be C and DVD drive would be D making the hard drive E)
3) Delete the ORBX directory on the SSD (not just contents)

4)
Option A - for people who can - use "Command" window DOS commands to navigate to correct FSX directory

Option B - download this program (http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/) and unzip it and put the contents into the FSX directory by way of copy and paste using windows explorer then run it from the FSX directory by double-clicking it using windows explorer
(it is the same as the Command window but no need to navigate manually using dos commands)

5)
Then to make a link in your FSX folder type this:
(in either console window or command window while in the FSX directory)

mklink /J "ORBX" "E:\ORBX"

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Damn easy. I use it BTW.

Now boot FSX and enjoy the suddenly extra space you have on your SSD!

Perhaps you never really needed a bigger SSD.

[kilo delta]

I have 2x Samsung 64GB SSD's running in my old sim PC since I built it in 2008. #1 houses my OS, #2 my photo scenery (to help prevent the dreaded blurries),a 1TB 7200rpm drive houses my FSX installation and files with a further 1TB and 2x500GB drives as backup/storage/other programs and games.

[albix]

Hello,
since many years now I am using a similar system by mean of this software: http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm
I have FSX core set on my SSD and have SimObjects folder installed on a second HDD.
Junction Link Magic is totally free and completely reversible so I invite everyone with HDD limited capacity to try this simple trick.
Best regards.

Alberto

[txnetcop]

The best scenario is to buy an adequate SSD to begin as you diminish the access speed to your scenery files by moving them to the slower throughput of a mechanical drive. However it is a good solution for those who have limited space on an inadequate SSD. However Microsoft Flight and X-Plane 10 is coming out very very soon! You will want a 240GB SSD minimum.
Ted

[adi518]

Sorry for bumping, it's for a good cause! :)

I came upon this thread a while ago and while it's a nice trick, the technique explained here is a little "primitive". There's this little app called 'HardShellLink', which adds all types of file and folders linking into windows right click context menu, making moving around scenery folders as easy as pie!

Can grab it from here: http://www.snapfiles.com/downloads/hardlinkshellextension/dlhardlinkshellextension.html

Once installed, simply find the scenery you want to move. Move it to where you want. Then, right click on it and select 'pick as source'. Then, go to the destination folder and right click again selecting 'drop as junction'. Ta-da, done in half a second! :D

[megs8888]

Sorry for bumping, it's for a good cause! :)

I came upon this thread a while ago and while it's a nice trick, the technique explained here is a little "primitive". There's this little app called 'HardShellLink', which will add all types of file and folders linking into windows right click context menu, making moving around scenery folders as easy as pie!

Can grab it from here: http://www.snapfiles.com/downloads/hardlinkshellextension/dlhardlinkshellextension.html

Once installed, simply find the scenery you want to move. Move it to where you want. Then, right click on it and select 'pick as source'. Then, go to the destination folder and right click again selecting 'drop as junction'. Ta-da, done in half a second! :D
Thanks for that what do you do when you want to revert back again? What do you do when you need to update scenery do you install it to the moved folder?

[Naismith]

Aside from the above I found this one which seems very useful

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/freecommander.html

A twin pane file explorer, saves opening up 2 explorers when shoving files about.

Woo Hoo. :love-struck:

[adi518]

Thanks for that what do you do when you want to revert back again? What do you do when you need to update scenery do you install it to the moved folder?

Nope. You simply install is if nothing happened. That's the beauty of junctions! the content is where you need it, while the actual files can be placed ANYWHERE. When you install/update into a junction link, it will update the source folder. The link itself is just a link, it's not a folder.

[Helldiver]

This is a big help and just what I have been looking for. But I would like to trim FSX down a lot.
First, what are the default airplanes can you get rid of? I don't like any of them.
There are parts of the world I'll never fly in. can I get rid of some scenery?
I never use Missions or Lessons. Can I remove all of them?
I'm using a 120 GB SSD but I want to cutdown on the load up time making FSX lean and mean.
Placing the ORBX and other big files onto another drive is a great idea..

[wombat666]

This is a big help and just what I have been looking for. But I would like to trim FSX down a lot.
First, what are the default airplanes can you get rid of? I don't like any of them.
There are parts of the world I'll never fly in. can I get rid of some scenery?
I never use Missions or Lessons. Can I remove all of them?
I'm using a 120 GB SSD but I want to cutdown on the load up time making FSX lean and mean.
Placing the ORBX and other big files onto another drive is a great idea..

Well, I always delete all the 'In House' aircraft except for the ultra lights (and I keep the sailplanes because I like flying them!), not sure about the Missions and the Lessons, but I'll give that a try, it works in FS2004 when you do the Golden Wings conversion.
I suggest you leave the scenery alone, unless you move it onto another drive.
However, the size of SSD drives is increasing and the price is coming into a more affordable slot, Samsung have 500GB, 750GB and 1TB drives out now, and the 500GB drives are excellent, IIRC the cost for a 500GB Samsung is around A$350.00.
Right now I'm considering the 1TB drives ......... nothing succeeds like excess!


:encouragement:

[delta_lima]

This is a big help and just what I have been looking for. But I would like to trim FSX down a lot.
First, what are the default airplanes can you get rid of? I don't like any of them.
There are parts of the world I'll never fly in. can I get rid of some scenery?
I never use Missions or Lessons. Can I remove all of them?
I'm using a 120 GB SSD but I want to cutdown on the load up time making FSX lean and mean.
Placing the ORBX and other big files onto another drive is a great idea..

I've deleted all missions and lessons - have been trouble free for over 4 years.

I've taken out (but stored them in a different drive) all the default aircraft. The only thing you'll need to do is create a different default flight, with a plane you're happy to always have in your collection. Every so often there's a gauge or sound file that an addon calls for - so I'd hang on to them. Ask me how I know that - I used to simply delete them all, but then had to reinstall FSX once on account of it just to get one missing file for some addon plane ...

Finallly, I only keep the planes in my "airplane" folder that I'm actively flying. I drift between interests every few months, so I archive everything except what I'm flying lots of. Then, when I want to fly a different genre, I store the outgoing and pull out the incoming. Plus, I don't collect repaints - only those I know I'll fly. So I'll strip out all the others, both the texture folders, and in the aircraft.cfg.

I would discourage deleting the stock scenery - though you could deactivate some items without risk of hurting anything. Not sure it'll help much in any event. That said, any addon scenery you've not liked/don't use - definitely deactivate first - then delete.

dl

[NorCal]

​I have Win 7 fresh install and do a lot of Flight Simming. My Sims are on C. I have approx 40GB left on my S.S. C drive & 855 GB on my Hard Drive F. I don't have a problem leaving sims where they are on my C but I'm gettin ready to download some airports, terrain, scenery & some planes/helis that will put me over the edge on C. Can I download these add-ons onto F & still "feel the love"?

[simondix]

I use a programme called Junction Link Magic that links my Orbx and all my Add On scenery files on a separate Drive. Quite easy to use.

[NorCal]

Thanks for you reply. I installed a 1TB SSD which took care of my problem - for now. Will definitely look into your suggestion - thanks