FS9 backups

[jackryan172]

Hi All,

I have realized that have alot of time and energy invested in my FS9 setup, and Id like to know what needs to be backup besides the the FS9 directory with all the addons and such.

Any additional files/entries I should worry about?

Sean

[Shessi]

Hi Sean,
Fs9 is stand-alone, so everything except a couple of registry entries are there (you could back those up, but ONLY if you know what you are doing. And if re-installing you would have to exactly replicate where you re-install your Fs9, otherwise you would get registry errors). The only other thing that isn't is your Fs9.cfg or Fs9 config file. This stores all your settings for the sim. If you really don't want to set it up again, then find that file (depending what OS you are using), by a specific file search, and if need be back that up as well.

TBH after some time, usually everything's been added to..scenery, add-on scenery, textures, effects, gauges, aircraft et al, so really you might as well back-up the whole of the installation. Generally speaking if you back up the whole thing, you can usually run Fs9 from that back-up, the only things that won't are those add-ons that you separately installed outside Fs9, but intereact with Fs9 ie weather or traffic programmes.

I tend to just back up Add-on scenery, aircraft and the Fs9.cfg, as just by backing-up doesn't mean it will all work again, as some things need to be installed (though not so much with Fs9). The other thing I do is take screen shot(s) of the scenery library installation settings table in Fs9, which shows what scenery is installed and where in the heirachy they are. If you have to re-install Fs9, then this is easy to replicate from the pics, and saves having to write it all down.

Cheers

Shessi

[Mick]

There are FS9 files 5hat live on the system drive even if you put FS9 on its own drive or partition. They include the FS9.cfg file. They live at C\users\[you]\appdata\microsoft\FS9.

Just a few days ago I did something - carelessly swept my mouse pointer - somehow, not sure just quite how - and FS9 went black and I had to close it with Task Manager, then it wouldn’t start. I didn’t know if something had scrambled a .cfg file or maybe the .exe file. I dug out the FS9.exe, FS9.cfg and scenery.cfg files from backups and put them in, and all was well. I guess I’ll never know which file got corrupted.

Anyhow, to save digging around to find the three files from backups if it ever happens again I made a backup set of those three files for FS2004, FS1954, FSJetAge and GW3 and stashed them where they’d be easy to find.

I back up my entire system drive with Macrium’s Reflect. I back up my FS drive with Reflect, and my hanger drive with a mirror on an external drive so I can copy new or modified aircraft to it as I work. I use Reflect for the system drive because it backs up the entire drive, including program files and the operating system, unlike many backup programs that are just meant to back up your documents and pictures, and sometimes programs. I use it for FS because I have it. I don’t use it for the hangar because that changes constantly and making a full backup every time I add or edit a few files has no appeal for me.

The reason I have a hanger is that I found many years ago that the more planes you have in the aircraft folder, the longer it takes FS to load. So the only planes that live in the aircraft folder (aka flight line) are the AI planes and the one I’m flying or working on.

By the way, here’s something not what you asked about but related to keeping FS intact. I have segregated the FS and hangar drives from my Norton security program. I’ve used Norton for more than twenty years and never had a virus or intrusion, but it had a nasty habit of, every once in a while, deciding that all the old (non-xml) gauges in my panels were unknown and suspicious executables and shunted them to quarantine and I’d have restore them - one at a time. By excluding FS and the hangar from scans, anything that I put on those drives will remain safe there.

[jackryan172]

Well I found a free application called "SyncFolders" http://www.syncfolders.elementfx.com/home.html and I am currently backingup my fs9 directory (all 148 Gigs of it) to my file server on my network. I will add a rule to backup my home directory too to include the fs9.cfg. Will the registry entries 'fix' them selves after you restore and run the restored fs9?

Sean

[Mick]

Well I found a free application called "SyncFolders" http://www.syncfolders.elementfx.com/home.html and I am currently backing up my fs9 directory (all 148 Gigs of it) to my file server on my network. I will add a rule to backup my home directory too to include the fs9.cfg. Will the registry entries 'fix' them selves after you restore and run the restored fs9?
Sean

I dunno about the registry entries. When I started loading up the new rig (still not quite finished and still something of a work in progress) I installed FS9 and GW3 from scratch to make sure all the required registry keys and the folders on the C drive got created, just in case Win10 put them somewhere different from Win7. It didn't, but I was concerned because when I went from WinXP to Win7, FS did put some things in different places. Then I just copied my FS installations and the C-drive stuff from my backups into where they belong. Not difficult or tricky, just boring and time consuming.

I would've been happier if I could've just clicked "clone to there," gone to bed and got up in the morning with everything in place and working. I could've done that if I'd been able to keep the same operating system. But nothing ever turns out that easy. We wasted lots of time trying to recreate the old rig with all new hardware before we gave up and went to Win10. Curiously, Microsoft won't sell you Win10 and won't allow a licensed retailer to sell it to you, but they're happy to sell you a license to run it if you have it. I got hold of a clean copy and bought a license so I could install it and have it work.

Anyway, back to your question, I wouldn't expect the registry to repair itself. Maybe it would, what do I know? I guess you could extract the registry keys from an old registry if you had a copy and trusted it not to have gotten messed up, and put them into a new computer but I'd be leery of trying it, afraid I'd miss something or mess something up. I'm not much of a techie (fortunately my best friend is) and the two things I try not to monkey with are the BIOS and the registry. But reinstalling FS9 from the CD-ROMs is easy and doesn't take long. Just remember to save a copy of The File That Must Not Be Named because FS9 is meant to run with a CD in the optical drive and later operating systems don't support that.

When we built my old confutor I tried to set up a backup system so that if the rig went belly up it would be quick and easy to recreate it in a new box. The need to move to a more modern OS spoiled that scheme. As we did before, we're going to clone the system drive onto a brand new solid state drive and save it in a safe place, so if my system drive fails we can just plug in the spare and update it from backups. But we couldn't do that this time because it wasn't a drive that failed, it was the motherboard, and the new modern motherboard's architecture doesn't support the old operating system. Annoyingly, we got the old OS installed and booted up, but it turned out to be impossible to get a keyboard or mouse working in it. They worked in the BIOS, but as soon as Windows booted up the mouse and keyboard went dead. So when I wear out this rig, I hope it's a drive or the power supply or something else that goes belly up and not the motherboard.

[Shessi]

Hi Sean,
No, it's it's not imperative that you save/back-up the registry settings, Fs9 will work fine without them, and even from a remote location/drive. It's in the very odd event that an add-on needs to 'see' the Fs9 installation to install itself, then it won't. Then you can install it elsewhere and transfer over the files to your install. Also if you have a separate add-on that intereacts with Fs9, it won't be able to 'see' it, but you can prob alter the settings to tell it where your Fs9 install is. All very minor things and I wouldn't get hung-up about them.

In Win 10 you also have a an inbuilt back-up prog called 'File history'. You can attach an external drive and set-up which files you want to back-up. It's maybe not as customisable as the dedicated or paid for software, but it's there, installed and free. You just have to activate it, set it up and Robert's your Dads brother!
But it sounds like you're on it anyway with Syncfolders, which (like most of these) get's good revues, I just wanted to mention the M$ option for others.

Cheers

Shessi