7 year old FS9 install = dead pc

[westjet]

I bought my current flying PC the day before fs9 was released here in canada july 27 2003.$5000 dollars in payware sceneries,planes ect and full go flight modules (even more $$$$) and my fs install was well over 200gigs.I was lucky never to have to reinstall fs9 as i was very careful on how i managed fs addons although having such as big fs9 file it took 20 mins to start fs(well worth it).The other day i come home from work and fire up the PC and nothing,HD is dead to the world.Get down on my knees to check connections and notice the floors wet and so is the PC(wife left window open and rained on computer so its fried.

Today i was shopping for a new pc and the wife was suprised when i came home empty handed but while in the store i realized that after 7 years of building fs9 i will never get it back to the way i had it.I think i have modified every thing thats possible in fs9 but is now gone forever.
I have been flight simming for 25+ years now and had finally thought i had the holy grail of fs installs so it will be hard to start all over again,if i do at all.I have my files backed up but its not as simple as just reinstalling fs on a new machine as many file have to be modified and pulled from fs to get it all working properly and looking at it now means alot of work and time...alot.

I guess i am living a fs tweakers worst nightmare.

[SteveB]

If the HDD circuit board fried it's always worth trying to get another hdd of the same model and swap out the boards, this has worked for me in the past on both Seagate and a Maxtor drives. and I have been able to retrieve all my stuff in this way.

Steve

[Terry]

So how do you know its fried? Have you tried opening it up, pulling out all the external connectors, and aiming a large fan into it for a couple days to be sure its bone dry? I sure would before I threw in the towel.

[Wing_Z]

Like me, you have fooled yourself into thinking that your fat, bloated piece of software represents the ultimate install.

So now go get an absolutely middle-of-the-road (by today's standards) computer at very reasonable cost, and start a fresh FS9 install.

Because you already know what makes a great sim, you can pick and choose those things that are best, without having all that legacy dreck slowing down the system (not that you'd notice, your new box is capable of running 10 FS9 sessions concurrently anyway ;) ).

And do try stuff you'd been nervous of before - what the heck, you would have made a full backup of the new vanilla install (with minimum necessary addons), didn't you?
Payware addons? More than ever, often at half the price.

FS9 has never been better, and will surprise you very pleasantly, yet again.

[Lionheart]

Yep, try saving it first.

Also, I believe your HD may have made it. If the computer doesnt boot up, take out the HD and ask Geek Squad to run a check on it, see if its still good, or when you buy a new computer, if you need to, plug it into the aux drive sockets and see if it fires up.


This could be a blessing for you. They have new quad core i7 performance chips out now! You can run 2 GC's in SLI cross fire mode! Computers are now super powerful. FS9 would run faster then you could ever imagine now. Like GLASSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! Smoooooooothie-wooooooo!!!!!! You would 'cry' if you saw it... Its amazing...

And computer prices are fairly low right now as well due to the bad economy. :d


Things are looking good.

Starting anew can sometimes be good. Most of your payware should be replaceable by the vendors. You can refine the installations this time.

Look for the good, man. And weld that window closed....


Bill

[rich12545]

I hope you can salvage your hard drive. But this is another lesson, I read about them every so often, about saving installs. I don't just backup files I back up tweaks. For example I save the entire addon scenery folder, texture folder, etc. Everything is backed up on my regular hard drive and external drive which is not connected unless I'm transferring files. I can't imagine how devastated I'd be if I lost both but the chances against that at the same time is very high. I even hide my extra hard drive when nobody will be home in case of burglary. Call me paranoid but I've lost some stuff from time to time.

[Wing_Z]

...Call me paranoid ...

Rich, you are paranoid... ;)

Actually, rebuilding a sim is quick and if you haven't done it for a while, fun.
Because you already know the path to a good install, you get there quicker than before.
And, for example: without the bloat which causes stutters at a favourite airport because of a texture clash you are too afraid too try to remove.
That kind of thing.

Lionheart is right - see this as an opportunity!

[Milton Shupe]

Even if the motherboard or power supply is fried, there is a great chance that the hard drive is fine. You can put that into any other computer as a secondary drive, then copy your FS to the primary drive. There may be some registry issues for some of your payware.

When we say fried, sometimes it is simply a power supply issue, or maybe it is still wet. PS's are easy to swap.

Take the unit into you local geek and have them test it out.

[OBIO]

Please feel free to call me weird...my wife and anyone who knows me in real life does, and does so often....but I have almost come to look forward to rebuilding my system OS and rebuilding my sim. A clean OS runs so much faster than an OS that has been installed and run for years on end....less junk laying about, fewer entries in the registry file. And rebuilding my sim is the same way...I tend to accumulate tons and tons and tons of aircraft that I don't actually fly other than on the day I install them...and building my sim from scratch cleans all of those unused aircraft out and streamlines my installs. As far as scenery and effects and that stuff...I make weekly or bi-weekly back ups of my entire installs to an external HD that is not plugged in or hooked to my system unless I am using it for doing back ups. The planes and scenery that I have tweaked to my liking are safely stored and readily accessible in case I need to rebuild my installs. All of my assorted mesh files are archived on CD, DVD and on my external HD.

Don't think of this as a loss, think of it as an opportunity to streamline your install and make it even better. Let your system dry out for a week....then fire it up. It may come right back on....or it may be dead....or someplace in between, with a new PS being needed. Don't just throw in the towel over a little rain water.

OBIO

[robert41]

I also have had to reinstall my very modified FS9 several times. GW3 with numerous sceneries; aircraft with modified sounds, panels, textures, CFGs; many effects; gauges; modules; sound files; weather and so on. Took about a week to get everything back up and running. Then one day I bought an external hard drive, and copied everything, I had modified, to it. When my old computer died, I installed FS9/GW3 to the new computer, took about two hours.
Like everyone has said, see this as a chance to improve the sim. I found many files that did not need to be there. Better organized, more streamlined.

[txnetcop]

Those older hard drives were tougher than nails. They may been slow but they are hard to kill unless you drop one. If you have a multimeter you can check for current to the motherboard from the power supply. I would suspect the power supply first.

[dhasdell]

I agree with OBIO:
Don't think of this as a loss, think of it as an opportunity to streamline your install and make it even better.Think of all of the masses of "must haves" that you installed, flew a couple of times and never went back to. Now's your chance to build the FS9 you really wanted, with the aircraft and scenery that you really enjoy and all running better than ever.

[Z-claudius24]

Hi,

The HD will be the last thing to fail due to rain water .. as the HD is competely airtight ...
The things to check first is certainly the power unit and the MB for obvious reasons.
BTW many parts can be salvaged (CPU GPU .. HD .. etc) provided they don't suffered any short circuit ...
Tests are in order before trow anything ( but maybe some bins chasers will be happy :) )

[westjet]

Well it looks like i will have spare time to rebuild fs on a new pc as i broke my leg at work last night. Tech guy at work says power supply and motherboard are shot but the hard drive is still good to go.I am looking foward to see the way FS performs on a new machine.Thanks to all for the encouragment to look at it as a new start and the tech support.This should help the next 6 weeks of recovery fly by.

[Milton Shupe]

Sorry to hear of your fortunate misfortune.

If you need someone to wash and wax and keep the bike running, give me a shout. :)