Computer Upgrade/Data Transfer

[Rake7575]

Purchased new computer and want to transfer all my FS9 files freeware/payware + addons (Ultimate Terrain, ASv6, Ultimate Traffic, BEV, FSGenesis, Radar Contact 4)from my old computer to new one. As suggested in a previous forum question, I've purchased an 80GB external HD ($90) and will connect via USB. My question is can I just transfer all the data to external HD then re-connect to new computer via USB and transfer? Do I still need to re-load the basic application of FS9 by CDs on the new computer and data transfer (copy) over that with stuff from old computer, OR can I just grab my entire FS9 folder, UT folder, BEV, etc and click and drag over to my new computer's HD?

Any advice or lessons learned is greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance
Rake

old computer: AMD Athlon 64 3200/2.5GB DDR RAM/ATI Radeon 700X 256MB Video Card PCI-Express/150GB HD

New computer: AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 dual core Hypertransport CPU/2GB Corsair ultra low latency RAM/ATI Radeon X1900XTX 512MB video card 650MHz clock/Raptor 150GB SATA 10,000rpm 1.5 Gb/s HD/motherboard NVidia nForce 4SLI x 16 (CPU/Video card/HD are fastest available today)

[W2DR]

Yes, you can just copy everything over to the new box but I wouldn't recommend it. If you just do a copy you'll be missing all the Registry entries (and other "hidden thingies") that most of the add-ons listed need to run properly. Since most all the add-ons will have to be reinstalled anyway, why not just reinstall the whole thing - including FS9? Believe it or not, it's probably much quicker (and a whole lot less work in the long run) just to start from scratch. Nice specs on the new computer.

Doug

[Rake7575]

Thanks Doug...that seems to make sense to me...I can at least copy over the aircraft, guages, effects and sound folders and reinstall the rest of it. I've heard it makes no difference what order you reload. Does this order make sense to most?

1) Install FS9
1.1) Copy over aircraft/guages/effects/sound folders
2) Install FSGenesis 38meter mesh for US/Alaska, 9m for Hawaii
3) Install BEV (4 Vols) + patches
4) Ultimate Terrain
5) Ultimate Traffic
6) ASv6
7) Radar Contact 4
8) FSBuild

Are there any other folders within the aircraft folder other than the ones above that I need to copy over to the new hard drive?

Thanks in advance.
Rake
new computer compliments of a nice check from the IRS...the biggest challenge was convincing my wife any computer could be worth as much as an all expenses paid trip to the Virgin Islands...certainly in my mind it is : )...semper sim!

[moth01]

Hi,
Remember your tax refund is your own money, that the gov't took too much out during the year. I'd rather have the money in my account thru the year, buy what I want, then break about even on the tax refund at the end of the year.
I don't like to give them an interest free loan.

Good luck on your reinstall, and that is a nice system you ave.
Gary :)

[W2DR]

That order looks OK to me. The only thing you'll have to watch out for are payware aircraft. All of them will copy over but some of them won't work properly until reinstalled. I'd reinstall any aircraft that's payware - doesn't take long and it's foolproof. The only other thing you may want to keep is your current fs9.cfg file (if you've modified it) and any saved flights that would be hard to recreate.

And I'll take a new computer to a VI trip anytime :-) . But since I've not seen a tax refund since 1986 (thanks Ronnie) I won't have to make that choice this year either.

Doug

[JSkorna]

Hi Rake,

You will need to re-install ASv6.

Hope this helps,
Jim
http://www.hifisim.com

http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-downloa...evelopment.jpg http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-downloa...nner-proud.jpg [hr][link:www.jdtllc.com|http://www.jdtllc.com/images/rcv4bannersupporter.jpg]

[yeoman1]

Hi Rake,

I have just had to re-load my Windows XP Home and noticed on the WIN XP Home disc menu the option to transfer all files etc from an old PC to a new PC. That might be an option for you!

In addition, don't forget to load the FS9 patch after loading FS9 if you take any other route.

Regards, Ken French

[GlennC]

I have seen all the other replies above mine. The only thing I would add is that for aircraft, if you have a lot of repaints and modified panels, they can be saved and reapplied. Copy all your aircraft folders. Reinstall all the aircraft the way the publisher requires, then just copy the texture and panel folders back into the new aircraft folder, then the aircraft.cfg. That worked well for me a few months ago.

Glenn

[Mojo2000]

MANY commercial add-ons cannot simply be transferred over as they may rely on a registry entry to indicate a valid purchase and/or installation. Sometimes associated data can be written all over h3ll's half-acre, and the location (or location name) may not be exactly the same in two consecutive installs. The safest policy to avoid headaches is to reinstall everything from scratch. Tough tooties, I know, but I'm sure many hard-core simmers will corroborate.

In some cases, it can still be useful to maintain backups of frequently updated components such as aircraft.cfg files and/or texture sets (e.g. for airplane repaints), and this may cut down on the time necessary to get back up to 100%.

Just my two cents'.


SIGLINE: "Stealth is where it's not." :D

[Rake7575]

Thanks for the advice all...I'm sure glad I saved those registry keys from Flight 1 for most of my payware...I was mostly concerned about my aircraft folder since that has the most man-hours invested in downloads/tweaking and of course, like most simmers, you've got you're favorites that you don't want to find and re-tweak over again...the scenery stuff (BEV/UT/FSgenesis, ASv6) will take a bit of time to reinstall but shouldn't be much of a problem. I've had to reformat HD and rebuild/reload everything...that was not fun.

On a related note, it will be interesting to see how folks handle the transition to FSX since many simmers (and developers) have invested so much effort in tweaking and adding on to FS9. I'm hoping the transition will be relatively seamless/painless. Perhaps FSX itself will negate the requirement for scenery, weather, ATC add-ons. We'll see. Like always, tweaking/adding-on becomes a cottage industry hobby in itself.

Rake