New SSD drive situation-will reinstalling FSX require Activation?

I am thinking about placing the FSX folder on a SSD drive. I have Windows 7 installed on a SSD and I currently have FSX on a Western Digital hard drive. I want to copy the FSX folder on the WD drive to the new SSD (using the same drive letter as the old WD drive). Would I have to reinstall FSX completely? The current FSX config files are on the Windows 7 SSD drive. :pilot:

What version of FSX is it? FSX deluxe I've installed on multiple computers and it's always activated without problem. Whereas FSX acceleration pack only installed once for me, and subsequent installs on other PCs failed on activation. Now I use the Steam version which you can install wherever you want using your steam account.

 

I don't think there is anything to lose in copying the files to the SSD and trying it, just don't delete what you have on the hard disk until you've tested and are sure. Ideally I would resinstall it, then you can be sure the windows registry will be setup correctly - but I'm not an expert on this.

 

UPDATE: Just seen another thread advising that FSX Steam edition is $4.99 until Monday. I would not hesitate in getting this, FSX with some bug fixes and multiplayer support for the price of a starbucks coffee.

FSX deluxe w/Acceleration (Gold Edition)

I moved FSX (Gold) to a SSD back in Aug 2014. I didn't have to re-activate FSX itself but had to un-install and then re-install some of my other payware add-ons.

 

There are two ways you can copy the drive contents - by simply using copy and paste or by cloning the drive using cloning software. While both will work IMHO cloning will be the best way forward. Google 'cloning a hardrive' for info on the pros and cons of copy/paste V cloning and Google 'cloning software' to find something that meets your needs

 

As my rig is a laptop I didn't have any spare slots to fit the SSD and so used a USB to SATA data cable and cloning software that came with the SSD.

 

I used the cloning software to make an exact copy of the old drive and once it was completed I simply removed the old HDD and installed the SSD. I booted up the laptop into bios mode to make sure that it recognised the new drive and then let it continue to load the OS. Once the system was up I used explorer to do a quick check of the new drive contents and then started FSX.

 

As stated above FSX didn't need re-activation but it did take longer to load first time on the SSD than it did normally on the HDD. All subsequent launches of FSX have been fast.

 

As to the problem with payware, it was only a few and, whilst annoying, took considerable less time to re-install them than doing a complete re-install of FSX etc.

Thanks. Just installed the SSD today and copied (did not clone) all of the files from the old drive to the SSD using a new drive letter different from the old FSX drive. (Windows 7>Computer>Manage>Disk Management.) Next, I changed the drive letter for the old FSX hard drive partition and again changed the SSD drive letter to match the old FSX drive partition so that FSX would be fooled into thinking nothing had changed. I did not have to reinstall any add-ons. The FSX program and my photoscenery all load a bit faster now and I did not have to reactivate FSX at all.