Rebuilding FSX - Help needed

[gigabyte]

"Help"

I had a catastrophic failure on my main system on friday and I am in the process of rebuilding... and well I need just a bit of help on one FSX question. I am a real nut about backup and I actually follow my own advice so this may seem weird but my backup is not allowing me to restore a group of files from one of teh FSX scenery folders. I have been working on recovering the data from the dead drive but having little luck accessing anything from that it seems totally fried. I am guessing the files in question were damaged when backed up and may have been bad for some time and not that commonly accessed so I would not have noticed until now.

The folder in question is - \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Scenery101\scenery

I have been able to restore most of the folder however the attached pic shows the list of Damaged files;
51365

So my question is, does anyone know if I can locate and extract these from my original FSX disks, and seeing as I have never tried extracting files from the original disks can I do it without using the FSX installer?. I have added the service pac and acceleration so I can't even be sure which disk to start with but if I know they can be extracted I will search the disks they are safely tucked away in the cases.

[Bjoern]

Back in FS9 days, you had easy access to all files in the .cab files on the installation disks, but this doesn't work for FSX somehow.

Getting your broken files back thus requires a re- or mock installation.
If you remove the uninstall entries for your current FSX installation from the registry, you can make the installer think that your PC doesn't have FSX installed and then create a new FSX installation somewhere else on your disk, patch it to SP2/Acc level, get your broken files back, remove the newly created installation, change the main FSX registry path back to your original installation and done.
You might lose your fsx.cfg and every other configuration files outside your FSX folder in that process, but those can be backed up beforehand.

[gigabyte]

Yeah kind of what I was afraid of, I didn't want to go through all that hassle and risk messing up all the add-on's and config changes I have done, but I may have to.

I do have one last hope, it does look like a fairly static file, I don't see any additions to it according to the file dates, and I know somewhere I did make full backup of the FSX folder when I was swapping out a disk, I just have to find it.

now off to search...

[Tako_Kichi]

If you can't find it Gig drop me a PM and I'll zip up my 'Scenery101\scenery' folder for you.

Another option may be to put in the FSX disc and run the 'Repair' option but if you have a lot of add-ons it may make a big mess of things.

[gigabyte]

Thanks so much Larry, I may have to do just that, I have searched the old hard drive and don't see it but I do have some stuff on DVD and an external I have not checked yet. I will be away tomorrow and Tues so hopefully as soon as I get back on Wed I will look again and let you know.

[BASys]

Hi Folks

Mike -
I'll give you odds
those files you are failing to restore,
are older versions than files which currently exist on your disk.

i.e.
Had you possibly installed an addon scenery or landclass upgrade package ?
And done so since that backup was made ?


From looking at the dem
it covers Portland Oregon, up to Anchorage, Alaska.

e.g.
OrbX PNW, Tongass Fjords, Vancouver+, etc.



HTH
ATB
Paul

[gigabyte]

Hi Folks

Mike -
I'll give you odds
those files you are failing to restore,
are older versions than files which currently exist on your disk.

i.e.
Had you possibly installed an addon scenery or landclass upgrade package ?
And done so since that backup was made ?

From looking at the dem
it covers Portland Oregon, up to Anchorage, Alaska.

e.g.
OrbX PNW, Tongass Fjords, Vancouver+, etc.

HTH
ATB
Paul

Thanks Paul, that is something for me to look into, I know I have not installed any scenery in a very long time, but that is the area I fly the most so if there is going to be a problem I will likely see it quickly.

I have none of the packages you list above unless you are referring to Victoria+, that I installed right after I did the current install of FSX, I loved that scenery and use it frequently so it was one of the first installed on my last rebuild. It is weird because when you look at the file dates they are all very old, yhey look like original game files and not something included with any add-on. I should know soon enough I hope to get chance to try it out tomorrow evening if all goes well after work.

[gigabyte]

Crisis averted for FSX anyway, I was able to recover the folder that was giving me problems and it looks like it was one of the original folders from the initial install. It took some doing but after working with my disk recovery tools I was able to get all of the FSX folders including the add on scenery and aircraft back in place on a nice shinny new drive. I am not having as much luck with IL2 COD or my X3 Terrian Conflict folders, I can't get some of the key folders to read and the backup is corrupt so it looks like I will be starting fresh on those two. Oh well no big loss on COD I did finish the British campaign and had not started the German one so I can pick that up easily. The X3 is a real PITA, I had installed many Mods for that and it will not be easy to connect the mods and various installs, but I guess a fresh start in Space is not a bad thing.

Thanks again for the offer Larry I really appreciate it, very nice to know there are great folks out there that are willing to help when these little problems come up.

[Tako_Kichi]

Thanks again for the offer Larry I really appreciate it, very nice to know there are great folks out there that are willing to help when these little problems come up.
Glad you got FSX sorted at least as I'd have been useless for the other problems!

[Roger]

Glad it's sorted Gig!