Installing FSX on Separate Partition?

[LTCSZ]

I have looked everywhere (I think) for a simple explanation of how to create a partition and install FSX onto that partition...Can't find one...Anyone know of such a tutorial? Thanks,

Steve in Kansas

[harleyman]

Why would you want to do that in the first place Steve?

[Lionheart]

Mason,

It protects the FS installation in a secure shell, incase you lose Windows to a virus and have to reformat, it will not damage the FS installation. (EDIT: Just dont reformat the 'entire' HD, just the Win Partition).

It 'might' help performance as well. I know that using scenery on a seperate HD will speed up frame rate performance, (dont know where I heard that). Using side programs like fraps, saving/writing to a diff HD also speeds up frames.. But maybe that is for seperate HD's and not partitions.



Bill

[harleyman]

Thanks for that....

Thats great but I just get it all set up the way i like it with all my addons and tweaks,then do a back up of the whole deal.....


But I can see doing that if it does not slow down HDD seek times.....



Well then...You need to reload your windows disk to do that,create a second partion,and give it a size..

Now then...You may need to redo the OS first,and give its size a value first,then leave the rest of the disk just for FSX..


That I'm unsure of....But I know when you partition a disk for the OS,it gives a size value,and you might need to adjust that before continueing with the install of said OS...

[kilo delta]

What operating system and does the hard drive already contain data, or is it a blank canvas? If the HDD is blank and you run windows, just install it in your PC, enable it in the BIOS and boot up the PC. From the Desktop.....click Start--->Right click on My Computer--->Manage--->select disk management. Select your new HDD and right click.......then format and create the desired partition size.:)

MS guide: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

If you already have data on the HDD and cannot or don't want to back it up then try this (payware) product .....http://www.symantecstore.com/dr/sat5/ec_Main.Entry17c?SID=27685&SP=10023&CID=189671&PID=627117&PN=1&V1=627117&CUR=826&DSP=&PGRP=0&ABCODE=&CACHE_ID=0

[LTCSZ]

Vista 32...From what I can tell, the OS contains a partitioner and it is "supposed" to be fairly simple to do...Uh huh...But there are all sorts of comments like, "Of course, you can loose data", and "Be sure to re size your main partition before re-partitioning"...I think I will just stay with what I have, although the idea of running FSX on it's own partition seems to be solid...Thanks for all of the info...

Steve

[kilo delta]

To be honest, you'd be better off installing FSX on a dedicated hdd.....especially with the low cost of drives.

[LTCSZ]

To be honest, you'd be better off installing FSX on a dedicated hdd.....especially with the low cost of drives.

Would you suggest an internal HDD or an external one?

[kilo delta]

Internal would perform better, unless you get an e-sata external drive. :)

[harleyman]

Go to NewEgg ..On the right look for the dropdown that has all their free shipping items..They have a nice HDD on sale for cheap with free shipping too.....


Never mind....Link here...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148377&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL011609&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL011609-_-HardDrives-_-L0F-_-22148377

[Lionheart]

With External drives, you will want something better then USB. I run external drives (originally internal HD's) and they run on USB quite fine, both FSX and FS9. But, FireWire and SATA links are much more faster, which would give you a couple of frames of good performance.


Bill

[bkeske]

I have always run FS on its own partition. In addition to what Bill has mentioned above by protecting my install and files (I have had to reformat my OS drive (partition) once, and it made things much easier to get 're-going'), I also don't like to have to defrag 850+ GB of hard drive space when all I really need to defrag is my FS and OS partition most the time. I also have partitions for my music files, photography files, other games, general 'storage', and a partition simply used for FS back-up files (SimObjects/gauges/effects/etc.), including a 'virgin' zipped up FSX install, so all the origional files are handy if I ever need them.

[hey_moe]

Putting all your games on a blank hard drive is the way to go because there is nothing on that drive that will slow down your game playing. You don't need any security, you can shut down just about all services. You can go on line from your main drive and download all the updates and move then to your game drive.

[codeseven]

Speaking of external hardrives, I'm kicking around the idea of buying a WD VelociRaptor, sticking it in a case and connecting to my laptop via Firewire(2 USB 2.0, 1 Firewire 800, no SATAII port). Does that sound feasable?

[harleyman]

It is feasable...But I would replace an older drive in your rig with the V-Raptor,then perhaps use the old drive in a hot swap bay or external device for it....

[codeseven]

It is feasable...But I would replace an older drive in your rig with the V-Raptor,then perhaps use the old drive in a hot swap bay or external device for it....

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I have a laptop and I want to keep FSX on it's own HD, hence 'external'.

Reading a bit more, Firewire is limited to maybe 100/mps IRL (is that true?) so the VelociRaptor would be 'overkill'. I should be looking for a much cheaper, External HD, that could just as easily reach that 100/mps bottleneck.

[kilo delta]

Yep...a 7200rpm hdd will be sufficient. :)

[harleyman]

I see...how about a sata connection? I wonder if thats faster.....??

I would think that a V-Raptor for that set-up is overkill..


Get one of the HDD on sale now from Newegg with free shipping and a 32 Mb Cache.......They are cheap and almost as fast as the Raptors are....-


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152100

[codeseven]

Thanks.

Is that 100/mps accurate? Seems slow. I definitily dont want to go cheap on the HD, just not to VelociRaptor prices. Also, I wont need a very large capacity HD either for what I'm going to use it for.

Also, no SATAII connection available on the laptop. The two USB ports will be used for game controllers and/or a mouse.

[kilo delta]

I've no experience with firewire external drives (happy enough with my old usb versions). I'm assuming that your laptop cannot accept extra internal hdd's and this would be preferable to an external drive? You can pick up a decent 1TB external hdd these days for around €100.:)

[codeseven]

I'm assuming that your laptop cannot accept extra internal hdd's and this would be preferable to an external drive?


Nope, it wont accept another internal drive and your right, that would be preferred.

Maybe putting FSX on an external drive is a waste of time. The article NickN wrote just says 'a separate drive' not 'external, thats just my own predicament.

[kilo delta]

No harm in trying installing on an external drive. Afaik Lionheart here was running his fsx on an external drive? Give it a try......even if the results aren't up to scratch you could use the extra hdd for backup purposes? :)

PS. there are hotswap adapters available that will allow you to run another laptop hdd in place of the optical drive.

[Kiwikat]

On my new computer I would like two hard drives, the first one for Vista, general use apps, and storage, and the second one for FS and other games. However, I would like to set aside a 100GB partition for linux on the second drive.

Would that partition have any impact on the performance of FS or the other games installed on that drive?

I am going to buy two 640 GB WD caviar black drives. I plan on dual booting Vista Ultimate 64 and either openSUSE or Ubuntu. I really don't want to spend the money for a third drive as I'm already about 200 dollars over my original budget...

[codeseven]

Being new to laptops I wasn't aware of an Expresscard slot. Here's a possible solution for an external SATAII VelociRaptor HD.

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/adexc34-2e.asp

[kilo delta]

Being new to laptops I wasn't aware of an Expresscard slot. Here's a possible solution for an external SATAII VelociRaptor HD.

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/adexc34-2e.asp

Have a look at the specs, though...
Maximum speed is throttled with this device


Maximum 300 MB/sec. data throughput

Compared to:

USB 2.0 max speed is 480 MB/sec
Firewire 400 max speed is 400 MB/sec
Firewire 800 max speed is 800 MB/sec
True eSATA max speed is 1.5 GB/sec

[harleyman]

I think you should be able to partition a second drive and use the other partition for FSX...... But it would be faster to just keep FSX on your OS drive ,and use your other boot drive for backups and storage and applications that aren't needed but on ocassion ...

[Kiwikat]

Would having linux on a different partition on the FSX HDD affect FSX performance though? It isn't accessing the linux partition unless you actually boot up linux. It doesn't show up on My Computer in Windows, just the NTFS partition.

[harleyman]

Yes it would...

The Linux will automatically get partioned on the outer part of the platter....That leaves the inner part for FSX.......

The seek times would be slower.... Will you ever see it? Maybe..maybe not....It all depends on the rest of your equipment and some luck...

I still cannot understand why you want to put it with Lenox,and not just leave it on your XP or Vista drive with the OS that will be running it...

[txnetcop]

I have two drives one is XP two partitions with FSX only. That is my Raptor Drive. The other has two partitions. It has Windows 7 Beta3 and Vista, MS Office and a few odds and ends. Now I am starting a third drive with Windows 7 Beta release and FSX. So far no problems at all and I run FSX at around 36-40 fps locked at 40 almost everywhere. When I get the third drvie ready I will test FSX with Windows 7 Beta Release.

I did quit using Seagate drives and all my hard drive issues stopped. Anyway you should have no trouble with speed.
Ted


On my new computer I would like two hard drives, the first one for Vista, general use apps, and storage, and the second one for FS and other games. However, I would like to set aside a 100GB partition for linux on the second drive.

Would that partition have any impact on the performance of FS or the other games installed on that drive?

I am going to buy two 640 GB WD caviar black drives. I plan on dual booting Vista Ultimate 64 and either openSUSE or Ubuntu. I really don't want to spend the money for a third drive as I'm already about 200 dollars over my original budget...

[Kiwikat]

I still cannot understand why you want to put it with Lenox,and not just leave it on your XP or Vista drive with the OS that will be running it...

Just to more evenly distribute my files. The HDD with Vista on it will have a lot more stuff on it than the one for FS. I figured I would set aside 100 gigs of the second drive because there will be a lot more extra space on it.

Seems there's conflicting reports about it affecting speed on the second drive. :help:

EDIT: Looks like a 80 gig drive is 35 bucks on newegg. I may just use that for linux. Then it is separate from the rest.

[codeseven]

Have a look at the specs, though...
Maximum speed is throttled with this device


Maximum 300 MB/sec. data throughput

Compared to:

USB 2.0 max speed is 480 MB/sec
Firewire 400 max speed is 400 MB/sec
Firewire 800 max speed is 800 MB/sec
True eSATA max speed is 1.5 GB/sec

What!? Is that 'normal' for Expresscard ports in general? If so, why would they even make one with a eSATA port on it?

[codeseven]

Well, I scratched an itch. I went ahead and bought the following items. We'll see how it goes.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=459

http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/view_detail/212

http://www.merax.com/products/XpressCards/eSATA-Xpress.html

[harleyman]

That is all for a laptop? Am I forgetting something here?:whistle:

[codeseven]

That is all for a laptop? Am I forgetting something here?:whistle:

Actually, your right, it's overkill for my laptop but I also wanted to have a great external HD that I would want to use if/when I re-build my PC.

[harleyman]

Actually, your right, it's overkill for my laptop but I also wanted to have a great external HD that I would want to use if/when I re-build my PC.



Thats what I was thinking too..


BTW...You got some great stuff there..It will have many applications for you down the road too..Not just for your laptop.......:wavey: