moving scenery to storage outside fsx

[zmak 331]

I currently have 2x128gb SDD .

 

1 is for windows

1 is for FSX

 

The FSX drive is full. how can I transfer some of scenery etc over to the empty SSD and have them still point to fsx

 

thanks

[dolph98 24]

Easy peasy. Create a folder on the new drive (I call mine "FSX_Scenery") and move your scenery files to that new folder, you can keep the same structure (subfolders). Then in Scenery Library inside FSX you need to point to the new folder: create a new scenery area and point to that drive/folder. Done.

 

Disclaimer: I do not know if this will affect some add-on scenery but it works great for mine so far. I don't buy scenery since there is so much freeware out there so I have no experience to share for that. Maybe others can direct you.

 

EDIT: I also have moved my AI aircraft to an outside drive: Create a folder on the new drive (I call mine "FSX_AIAircraft") and move your AI planes there. You can keep the same structure (subfolders). Then open FSX.CFG and edit it as follows:

 

AI Aircraft can be moved to any drive, just tell FSX where it is. In FSX.CFG add the following line:

 

[Main]

SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes

SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft

SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles

SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats

SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals

SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc

SimObjectPaths.6=MyTraffic\Aircraft

SimObjectPaths.7=F:\FSX_AIAircraft<--- This line points to location of AI aircraft. This freed up 3+ GB of space on my SDD!

 

FIXED: I cannot get the above to format correctly but you get the idea.

Good luck.

[zmak 331]

Easy peasy. Create a folder on the new drive (I call mine "FSX_Scenery") and move your scenery files to that new folder, you can keep the same structure (subfolders). Then in Scenery Library inside FSX you need to point to the new folder: create a new scenery area and point to that drive/folder. Done.

 

Disclaimer: I do not know if this will affect some add-on scenery but it works great for mine so far. I don't buy scenery since there is so much freeware out there so I have no experience to share for that. Maybe others can direct you.

 

EDIT: I also have moved my AI aircraft to an outside drive: Create a folder on the new drive (I call mine "FSX_AIAircraft") and move your AI planes there. You can keep the same structure (subfolders). Then open FSX.CFG and edit it as follows:

 

AI Aircraft can be moved to any drive, just tell FSX where it is. In FSX.CFG add the following line:

 

[Main] SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft

SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc SimObjectPaths.6=MyTraffic\Aircraft SimObjectPaths.7=F:\FSX_AIAircraft<--- This line points to location of AI aircraft. This freed up 3+ GB of space on my SDD!

 

I cannot get the above to format correctly but you get the idea.

Good luck.

 

Thanks dolph for your detailed reply :-)

 

I will give a try. My scenery is payware but the principle should be the same.

 

I will let you know how it went

[zmak 331]

okay all done, was able to transfer around 15gb and added back into library, I even managed to find a very large piece of mesh that was not activated previously

 

cheers

z

[dolph98 24]

Eggsullent! Glad it worked for you. I thought twice before I posted that information fearing it would ruin your sim experience in case you had payware scenery and it flubbed it up. I'm so glad it worked for you. Just be aware that payware may or may not add files that point to the installed location to work properly.

 

Regarding the AI aircraft move, note that this does not work with myTrafficX. I don't know about other traffic addons but myTraffic X has it's own folder of AI planes and if moved it will not work. There may be a way to do it but I don't know how. It would take some tweaking. I wish I know how because that AI folder is 8.75GB and I would love to get that space back. Oh well.

It does work for all my default planes that I never fly like the Baron and King Air (these planes are used for AI by various addons such as Ideal Flight) as well as all my MAIW AI addons.

[mjrhealth 820]

Yes its a bit annoying with AI. You can move the WAOI folder than just point to it in FSX, but the WOAI installer cant find it . It would be so nice if they would allow things to be installed outside fsx, for the most part it is not a fsx restriction

[ZKOKQ 984]

One of our fellow Avsim members Jeroen posted instructions on how to move certain payware to another drive, for example Orbx. Here it is:

 

**************************************************************************************************************

 

Actually, you can quite easily move any folder anywhere you want to (at least in Windows 7 but probably also in Vista: don't know about XP), even the Orbx-folders, by using the Windows junction option. You will fool the system into thinking the folder is where it should be while it is somewhere else.

 

DISCLAIMER: Try this at your own risk. The situation can be undone easily be copying everything back and removing one file (more about that later).

 

Imagine you want to move the Orbx folder entirely to another drive, so also out of the FSX folder, which is impossible under normal circumstances.

 

Let's say the current path to the Orbx-folder is this:

 

C:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ORBX

 

Now move the entire Orbx folder out of the FSX folder to a new folder on another drive (if you want to), for instance here:

 

D:\Programs\ORBX

 

After doing that, open the command prompt (cmd.exe) and go to the folder where the Orbx folder originally was, in this example C:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Use the good old DOS-commands to get you there*. When you are there type this (I am using this example's folder names and path but obviously you have to change everything to your folder names and path, but do use the " where they are noted!):

 

mklink /J "ORBX" "D:\Programs\ORBX"

 

and hit Enter.

 

So that is mklink /J "name-of-the-folder-you-moved" "the-complete-path-to-the-new-location"

 

From now on the computer will think the folder is still where it was while it actually resides on another disk. Since the computer still thinks the folder is where it was, you will be able to install and uninstall new sceneries without any problems: you simply tricked the computer into thinking the folder is where it should be (in the FSX folder) but everything will be installed in the new location.

 

To undo all this, remove the file that's created by mklink (it creates a file where the folder originally was) and copy back the entire folder to its original spot.

 

* DOS commands

- to get to the root directory of the current drive type cd\ and hit Enter

- to get to another drive using the command prompt, type the letter of the drive followed by a : and hit Enter

- to get to another folder using the command prompt, type cd followed by a space and the path to the folder and hit Enter

[WILDHEART3003 8]

Very interesting...Atm I enjoying the speed of my SSD, would this effect the loading time if the folder moved to a normal HDD?

[ZKOKQ 984]

Very interesting...Atm I enjoying the speed of my SSD, would this effect the loading time if the folder moved to a normal HDD?

I have noticed no decrease in loading/performance at all. I would keep terrain products on the fastest drive though.Having said that, Orbx PNW and AU perform well being moved to another drive. I am using a Vrap for FSX not a SSD though.

[zmak 331]

well I have moved 30 g so far and still going. Normally I would just buy a 2t HDD but it seems such a waste to have 128gb with just internet explorer on it

 

good info with ORBX ZK, I have a lot of it and will be acquiring a lot more

[dolph98 24]

Well in the case of the OP he has two SSDs. By moving his scenery to a mechanical drive away from the SSD containing FSX he is doing exactly what I have done. If/when I ever reinstall FSX from scratch, I hope I have enough money to buy the largest SSD available for FSX. If not, I will not go this route again - I will simply put FSX on my fastest mechanical drive and leave it there. Then I won't have the hassle of moving things around like this.

It stands to reason that scenery must take ever so slightly more time to load now. I have FSX and Windows 7 sharing a single 120GB SSD, and my addon scenery and AI on a mechanical disk. I can't say I've noticed any slowdown at all once I'm airborne. While flying, FSX is reading scenery data from the mechanical drive with all it's latency and lower data transfer rate thus cancelling the reason for the SSD installation in the first place. It would obviously be better if that scenery was on an SSD so splitting it makes little sense to me, but it became necessary due to space limitations like the OP. FSX loads a little faster maybe, but the tradeoff is not really worth it. 20/20 hindsight.

Having Windows 7 (or any OS) on an SSD? Priceless.

[scott967 62]

I recomend a freeware program "junction link magic" to create symnpolic links.

 

scott s.

.

[mslim 12]

As per Scott's recommendation I installed Junction Link Magic. My ultimate aim is to move all FSX scenery to my 128gb M4 SSD in the hopes of curing the blurries. I have created a folder on the SSD and copied all my sceneries (addon, default FSX, and Orbx) to it.

 

Since I couldn't find a tutorial or real manual on JLM I am a little confused about how to use it properly.

• Is the Junction Point (host folder) the original location that FSX creates on the C drive?
  
• Is the Destination (target folder) the new location on the SSD (in my case the J drive"?
  

Or is it the other way around?

 

Also if the Orbx folder on the C drive correctly J linked, would it be safe to delete it after confirming that the J link works properly?

 

Thanks in advance for any guidance on this.

 

M. Slim