reinstalling FSX..what to do?

[Daveroo]

unfortunately the money i thought i was getting didnt come as expected...i got less than an 1/8th of what they told me id get.(part of a settlement) and i cant by my new PC or the heli-kit until later this year.

SO,what i want to do is remove my install of FSX,and reload it from scratch,ive got time as im in the middle of a "space" remodel,ive removed my computer desk ( anyone want a desk?) ,mounted my monitor and keyboard swing arm on the wall,and im waiting on my brother inlaw to finish building a shelf with a collapsible piece that i can put my controllers on,and it will fold out of the way when not in use.

ok all that said,id like to completely uninstall my FSX and reinstall it clean,with only the aircraft i want,and my fav scenery.

I use CCleaner ,can i just use it to uninstall FSX from my system,i dont think removing every item from the registry is necessary,or is it?

id like to just uninstall,run ccleaner system wide,and clean the registry with it,then defrag and reinstall.

anyone see any issues with this plan?

Dave

[Dangerousdave26]

Yes I have a problem with your plan. My problem is you need to backup your system now before you make any of those changes. They could lead to a full reinstall of windows if you do it wrong.

My first suggestion is you make an image of your existing C dirve and any other drive that houses a FSX partition.

If you have an image you can pork the whole hard drive and recover everything with no lose of data or functionality.

This requires two things available removable drive space and a CD with clonezilla (http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php) burned to it or parted magic (http://partedmagic.com/) which is what I use.

Actually I am in the process of doing the image verification of a clonezilla backup at this moment. Once it is done if I lose my hard drive I can go back to today completely.

Once this completes I will let you know what the ratio is so you can have some type of idea how much disk space you might need to image your drive.

[Dangerousdave26]

2 drives total of 461 GB of space backed up to one External drive occupying 298 GB of space. It took just a hair over 8 hours to back up both drives.

Its well worth the time if you have the external drive to backup to. That is the key it will be the best money you ever spent.

If you want to do it send me a PM and I can help you out.

[Geomitrak]

I've done a complete re-install of FSX four times over the years, and never saw the need to back up anything ( except the FSX.cfg with all the tweaks, so I had something to refer back to when re-tweaking the new one ).

I have it deleted again right now in favour of P3D v2.1, but am considering reinstalling it again, for reasons unconnected with this topic. All I did was make put installation disc 1 in the drive, and then selected Uninstall. I think I've also done it using the 'uninstall a program' option in W7 control panel. Then I went through things like Appdata, deleting all the folders that FSX creates, followed by running CCleaner to tidy up the registry, and then defragging the relevant drive. I've never had a single problem with the OS ( XP and W7 ) as a result. Four times - no problem.

Unless I am missing something vital here, or just been lucky, I don't understand why any backing up or imaging needs to be done.The only thing I would say is make sure your internet connection is up and running when you uninstall. It may be a complete myth, but someone once advised me that when it comes to reactivation with the serial number, the little goblins at Microsoft will know that the original copy has been uninstalled.

[Roger]

Cloning your drive is a good idea Dave. One of the best guides I've seen for uninstalling FsX is on PMDG's website.

http://support.precisionmanuals.com/kb/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx

[Geomitrak]

Cloning your drive is a good idea Dave. One of the best guides I've seen for uninstalling FsX is on PMDG's website.

http://support.precisionmanuals.com/kb/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx

Thats a very good guide, but where does it say you need to clone the drive ? Yes, go through the list of add-ons in Control Panel / Uninstall a program BEFORE you uninstall FSX - I've done that every time, uninstalling the PMDG MD-11, A2A's C172, Stratocruiser & COTS, REX, Orbx etc - but I still don't follow why a disk image is required. I've done this four times without a single problem, and I daresay most other people have done it. Where does this disc image idea come from ?

[Dangerousdave26]

...SNIP but where does it say you need to clone the drive ? ...SNIP

In my computer proactive protection manual.

Page 3 after the acknowledgements for all the times I changed things and was glad or wished I had a backup.

Always backup prior to making changes. Any backup 6 months old or less is probably good. I have restored from a backup that was two years old with no trouble and was glad I had it. That was the time I shut the computer off while it was doing a defrag. I accidentally pushed the power button and shut it off. When I restarted parts of the windows operating system were gone. They had not made the move so to speak :biggrin-new:

We have had a number of members here who did reinstalls of FSX and FSX refused to run afterwards. In more than one of those cases the member had to do a rebuild of the system just because they had no backup. If they at least had an image of where they were prior to the uninstall/reinstall they could have gotten back to square one easier.

In any event Dave asked


id like to just uninstall,run ccleaner system wide,and clean the registry with it,then defrag and reinstall.

anyone see any issues with this plan?

I gave him my opinion based on my experiences. A backup is always a good idea especially when you do not have one.

Does he have to follow my advice...

Nope

[Daveroo]

all i can say to all of this is...........:untroubled:

Dave ya got a new PM..thanks bud

[jschall]

@Daveroo, the Bible is here:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html


I followed Nick N.'s instructions to the letter, and now I'm a believer!