installing on a seperate hdd?

[Rezabrya]

hi guys. i am building a new pc very soon and if all goes as planned, i will have 3 hdd's, a 750 gb wd, a 500 gb wd, and an 80 gb wd. I will be installing the os on either the 750 or 500 gb one so the 80 gb one will be left over. As it is so small i was thinking about making it an fsx only hdd. i used to have fsx on a seperate hdd than the os but when i installed acceleration it couldnt find my fs installation since it wasn't on the os hdd. I was wondering if there is a way to do this right so i could have fsx on it's own hdd but still installa cceleration. any input on this is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[harleyman]

First off I would make the small 80G HDD for your OS and all your apps like virus,spyware,tools,Adobe,etc......

I would use the 750 JUST for FSX,Acceleration ,and all its extra addons ONLY..Nothing else...


Then use the last one for storage..You can put all things like your pics there,If you use things like GEX,FEX,the extra gigs of backups can be directed there too.......I store all my tools (installers) there plus my drive backups when I make them....


If installed correctly it will find its correct path,If not just redirect it to your FSX install...We can all help with that when and if it arrises for you..it is very simple to do..


80Gigs simply is not large enough for FSX and all its stuff....Period....

[Rezabrya]

ok, I would most likely end up using the 500 gb for fsx and maybe just a few others. The 750 gb one for os and all my programs and i don't know what i would use the 80 gb for. I have a 320 gb external hdd for all my media and plane backups and stuff so im good. I just thought fsx would like a nice little 80 gb hdd just for itself and nothing else. i figured it would be big enough as the most my fsx folder has ever been was about 30 gig and thatw as with a lot of crap. now that i have the aerosoft F-16 and REX though it would mos tlikely take up a lot more space.

[harleyman]

Well the 80 Gig is perfect size for an OS and apps.....


And over time FSX will get very big..Expecially with Acceleration and REX.... You might want GEX and UTX one day too as they really bring out the best in FSX IMO......

You could always save the extra drive as a back up for later ... Just a thought....

[Rezabrya]

ok well i will use the 80 gig for something, if not the os. but last time i tried to install fsx acceleration it didn't work because my fsx installation was on a different hdd than my os. So has anyone managed to install fsx and acceleration on a different hdd than the os? So far the list is most likely
80 gb-os
750 gb-app's programs and all other stuff
500 gb-fsx and accel and all the things that go along with that.

[harleyman]

Its done all the time...

Lets say your OS in on C Drive and you want your FSX to be on D Drive.....

Just go to D drive and make a folder called FSX(or anything you want)...When you are installing FSX,there are options to browse the install to another drive / place on your computer.....

99% of games allow you to do this....

[Rezabrya]

...yes i know this but my problem was acceleration wouldnt install because it said it couldnt find the fsx installation which i am assuming is because i had fsx on a different drive than the os. how do i fix this?

[harleyman]

I never had that problem...But you should be able to browse the install of Acceleration just like most installers allow........

If you run the disk and miss the place where you can browse it,just terminate the install,start over,and look closer for the browse feature....As far as I know its there....

[Cactuskid]

...yes i know this but my problem was acceleration wouldnt install because it said it couldnt find the fsx installation which i am assuming is because i had fsx on a different drive than the os. how do i fix this?

It's searching the registry for your FSX installation. Is your FSX.cfg installed in your main drive (the one with your OS installed)? It should be in C:/documents and settings/administrator (May be your name)/application data/Microsoft/FSX.

I don't use Acceleration, but I assume that it looks for your fsx.cfg file when it installs...

[harleyman]

Thats true...It has always found mine,I tried to run Acceleration on this rig to see for sure if it allowed you to browse,but the install on this rig is not registered ,so it will not run for me to see....I was going to get a screen shot of the browse feature for him...

I do not want to register this copy on this rig as I have to do the phone thing,and this rig is just for testing........

My good rig is ,well,missing a PSU now ....

[Butcherbird17]

When you install FSX, just choose Custom install and change the drive letter to the drive you are putting it on. (keeping the folder structure) The installer will create all the folders for you. On the hd/d's you want to use the faster drive for your OS. Depending on which of the (500 or 750) 2 drives are faster, thats the one to use for the OS. If the 500 GB drive is a Sata2 3.0gb 16 mb cache 7200rpm and the 750 is only got an 8 mb cache and is only 5200rpm you want to use the 500 gb as OS drive. Now if the 80gb drive is the fastest it would be perfect for OS only.

Joe

[harleyman]

ButcherBird...I think he is saying that his Acceleration install is not finding FSX on a second drive..Thats curious in itself.......

I never had FSX to *make* its own folder off the OS drive..It always just installed them all over the second drive not in a folder..I have always made my own folder If installed off the OS drive....

[FLighT01]

ok well i will use the 80 gig for something, if not the os. but last time i tried to install fsx acceleration it didn't work because my fsx installation was on a different hdd than my os. So has anyone managed to install fsx and acceleration on a different hdd than the os? So far the list is most likely
80 gb-os
750 gb-app's programs and all other stuff
500 gb-fsx and accel and all the things that go along with that.

Absolutely, I've got 3 X 300 GB Velociraptors my new box, with Vista64 and all the other non FSX related requirements (Abobe Reader, Word, Controller Software, etc. on C drive).

I'm pretty sure I did exactly as Harleyman says but: I made a folder named FSX on my D drive and pointed my initial install of FSX there in the "Browse" box when that window of the install popped up. After installation was complete I booted the sim, checked settings, did a short flight, closed FSX and rebooted the computer. I then installed Accel and when the "install to" window page popped up it was showing me that it had automatically located my FSX installation on D drive and it was all down hill from there. I then fired it up, checked settings made a short flight rebooted the computer. Forced a full defrag from the command prompt of C & D drives and it's been running spectacularly with FPS generally in the 45 to 60 range (I lock at 60 - will probably drop to 30 when the add ons are all in.)

Because this is my first foray into multiple drives I'm going to keep things as simple as possible and install all add ons, including large texture set data bases to D. But, what I plan to do is with large data base things like FEX, GEX, things that don't need to be installed directly into FSX itself, like say add on planes which do, I'll make additional folders and name them XFEX, XGEX, etc. to install them to on D drive. Any name, as long as it doesn't start with any letter from A to F. This should keep FSX at the outer edge for fastest access by the HDD.

I'm saving my E - Drive for the next great combat flight sim, whatever that turns out to be.

I think I got it right? The big question is will I remember to double check the "install to" page for each add on to insure it's going to D.

At this point I'm having such a blast running stock FSX Accel as smoothly as babys' butt, (after years of struggling with my old box) I'm not chomping at the bit to start the add on dance as yet. But sooner or later... Plus we got a bunch of new environmental add ons just released or I suspect about to be released soon so I can wait a bit longer, see what the view is when the dust settles.

PS: The reason I made a separate folder in D was to insure it remains fully under my control, that Vista and some of it's components that like to tell you what you can and can't do with your programs is out of the picture. Even though I've got every Vista "protection" program turned off or disabled, I still wanted to have all FSX programs on the same drive but manually ordered so that FSX itself stays near the fastest part of the disc without having to resort to something like ultimate defrag to force ordering. Eventually I will put on O&O 8.6 and start using it for full, alpha defrags, as I have on my other box but for now the command prompt line defragger is okay until all the usual software suspects have been installed.

[harleyman]

Well said Flight........


I think you covered it all very well........So you get this....

[FLighT01]

Well said Flight........


I think you covered it all very well........So you get this....

Thanks!