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How Many Installations per Disk


Jim77

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I bought FS2004 years ago and still have the four disk set. I used the same disk set to reinstall FS2004 in a new computer after a complete computer failure. I used the same disk set to reinstall FS2004 after some issues after upgrading to Windows 10 in the new computer.

 

I downloaded the FS9 Update.v1 a few months back and am having some minor problems, mostly slow start up and shutdown times when using FS2004. I'm looking at uninstalling the update to see if that fixes the slowness issues. The Update instructions say to first uninstall the complete FS2004, then you can uninstall the Update. I'm concerned that there may only be a limited number of times you can use the same disk set to install FS2004, leaving me with nothing if I uninstall, other than buying a new FS2004 disk set.

 

Anyone know if there is a limit on the number of installs you can use a disk set for?

 

Thank you.

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I don't think there is a limit to the number in installs. I have installed mine a number of times. If you are going to reinstall just make sure you uninstall other installations by using the Control Panel and the "Programs and Features" function to keep the registry clean.

Larry

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I wouldn't advise uninstalling the FS9.1 update just to make FS9 startup faster. Most add-ons won't work without the FS9.1 update installed, and you'll have other issues which the FS9.1 update fixes for you. Startup will become slower as you install more add-ons. My current FS2004 install is over 150 gigabytes and takes quite a while to start up, believe me...

Tim Wright "The older I get, the better I was..."

Xbox Series X, Asus Prime H510M-K, Intel Core i5-11400F 4.40GHz, 16Gb DDR4 3200, 2TB WD Black NVME SSD, 1TB Samsung SATA SSD

NVidia RTX3060 Ti 8Gb, Logitech Flight Yoke System, CH Pro Pedals, Acer K272HL 27", Windows 11 Home x64

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Thanks for the replies.

 

Another question then: So adding additional aircraft (or scenery) can make the start up slower? I have added about 60 additional aircraft (downloads) to my FS2004 aircraft folder over the years, some with one texture, some with two or three, but no scenery or anything else. The aircraft folder is currently 6.38GB. Not sure what size a newly installed FS2004 aircraft folder is without added downloads, but probably not nearly this big.

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Hi Jim

The default Aircraft folder is only 441MB. But I think there is no limit on how many aircraft you can add. Assuming you must be also adding Gauges and related Effects. The total reinstall is bit tricky, since some registry keys need to be wiped clean. I did once a total reinstall tutorial so pasted it below in case you missed something.

Good Luck

Peter

 

FS9 TOTAL REINSTALL.

Totally reinstall the FS using the four original discs. At the same time, retain add-on scenery, add-on airports, effects, traffic, aircraft etc. from the original FS9. Below is the guide helping how to proceed with the total uninstall and re-build, retaining all the timely efforts spent in improving FS.

1/PREREQUISITE:

1. Have the four original installation discs.

2. Copy the entire FS9 (FS2004) folder to external drive. This folder could be under Program Files or under the root C drive, if FS was installed there initially (C:\FS 2004 or similar).

3. Copy the Flight Simulator Files folder from your Documents folder to external drive.

4. If you want to retain the same settings, write down the info and percentages from the FS Settings: General, Display, Sound, ATC, Traffic, Assignments, Sensitivities, Realism, Weather.

2/ TOTAL UNINSTALL:

1. Delete the entire FS9 (FS 2004) folder. This folder could be located under the Program Files, or under the root C drive if installed there initially. (See Prerequisite above – this folder must be backed-up).

2. Delete the Flight Simulator Files folder from under the Documents folder. (See Prerequisite above – this folder must be backed-up).

3. Set your folder options View to see “Hidden Files and Folders”. Find the AppData folder under your PC main directory Users/ your PC Name /AppData (this is a hidden folder). Click the folder and open Roaming folder and Microsoft folder. Select fs9 folder and delete it.

4. Delete FS folders from PC Registry. Search in your PC search box for regedit and click regedit.exe (run command). It is suggested to back up Registry Keys prior to these tasks. May not be necessary if you are familiar with folder functions and mistakes are not made.

A/ Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator\9.0 and open all its sub-folders. Delete the last 9.0 folder and all its sub keys, and then delete the Flight Simulator folder and all its sub keys. Note that Flight Simulator\9.0 folders with the sub keys may not be there, depending on how the FS was installed. If you do not see the Flight Simulator folder, disregard this.

B/ Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\ Uninstall\Flight Simulator 9.0 and open all its sub-folders. Delete the last Flight Simulator 9.0 folder and all its sub keys. Note that Flight Simulator 9.0 folder with the sub keys may not be there, depending on how the FS was installed. If you do not see the Flight Simulator folder, disregard this.

C/ Click HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\ Flight Simulator\9.0 and open all its sub-folders. First delete the last 9.0 folder and all its sub keys. Then delete the Flight Simulator folder and all its sub keys.

5. Remove FS9 from the Start menu. Start / All Programs / Microsoft Games / Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004, right-click and delete including all other icons related to FS.

 

3/ NEW INSTALL:

1. Install the FS9 using the four original discs. My experience shows that it is better to do a Custom install to a folder on a hard drive ‘C’ instead to the Program Files, which is a default install. If agree, commence custom install to a folder on hard drive, could be named FS2004.

2. Complete the install using the four discs (1;2;3;4) and let FS start.

3. Set the settings as per your notes, to match the settings in previously installed FS.

4. Do a basic simple flight to see if all is OK.

Close the FS.

1. Upgrade to v9.1, download from Microsoft: https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/2795/flight-simulator-2004-update-v91/. The downloaded program is copied to FS root directory and run from there.

2. Hook up external drive with your copy of the original FS9 (FS2004) folder and open the folder in a window on your PC. Next to it open the newly installed FS2004 folder.

3. If ‘NO CD patch’ used in your original FS, copy the fs9.exe from the drive where you backed up your original FS folder to the newly created root FS folder overwriting the default fs9.exe. This way you do not need disc 4 to run FS. If you did not have no CD patch it can be downloaded from: https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/15244/microsoft-flight-simulator-2004-v91-no-cd-patch/

4. Copy/overwrite entire contents of the following folders to the corresponding folders from where you backed up the original FS to the newly installed FS, overwrite the files if asked:

• FS2004/Aircraft

• FS2004/Modules

• FS2004/Gauges

• FS2004/Effects

• FS2004/Sound

• FS2004/Texture

• FS2004/Add on Scenery

• FS2004/Scenery/World/Scenery

Also:

• Copy your saved Scenery.cfg file to the newly installed FS- This file is in the root FS folder – this way the individual sceneries transferred from the original Addon Scenery do not have to be activated in the newly installed FS. Not copying this file would mean that you will need to activate desired add-on scenery again.

• If desired Copy the saved Flight Simulator Files to your Documents folder.

• Copy the contents of the FS2004/Scenery folders in the regions where there were modifications or SBuider was used to adjust the terrain. Example: if the new airport was added with flatten area in Eurw region the AP files or VTTP and LWM2 bgl files should be copied to Eurw/scenery. You might have also modified some Scenery /Generic or BASE files and need to replace these. This probably pertains to the advanced users only.

• If desired delete the default flight plans file trafficxxxx.bgl (xxx are the numbers, could be different at each FS) this file is in FS2004/Scenery/World/Scenery folder. Deleting this file will delete FS default AI traffic. This way only your added traffic and aircraft will be showing and not the fictional AI supplied with the original FS.

• Designate keyboard functions (assignments) as was prior DE install: For example, I got: Tab key for eye point view, X key for auto throttle disengage, SPACE bar for throttle cut, D key for flaps down, R key for flaps up.

Doing above covered the following transfers from the original FS:

All added aircraft and flight plans were copied with Aircraft and Scenery/World/Scenery traffic files.

Add-on airports and scenery is available with copied Add-on Scenery and activated either through FS or by transferring the scenery.cfg file.

If used, any new effects, gauges or sounds were copied with corresponding files.

If used, FSUIPC module was copied with the Modules file.

If used, Traffic View Board was copied with Aircraft, Gauges and Modules files.

If used, any Reverser sounds or smoke effects were copied with Sound, Effects and Aircraft files.

If used the Edit Voice Pack sounds, including acceleration (if used) were copied with the Sound files (USEnglishASOS, USEnglishBig.gvp, Evp_Accelerated)

If used, altitude Call Out was copied with Sound, Gauges and Aircraft\panel cfg files.

If used, the texture enhancements, such as Airport environment and similar were copied with the Texture file.

If AIRED was used for flyable aircraft deletion from FS menu (0-2), the non-flyable aircraft were deleted from the menu with copy of the Aircraft files.

Peter Bendl

ex. British Airways

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Phew, I just copied my complete basic install onto a portable drive, so when I want extra installs, I just copy & paste, renaming the folder & the FS9.exe before running the new install.

All freeware should be good, but payware would need to be reinstalled.

I have 9 different FS2004 installs done this way. Some are very big, & the more aircraft & scenery you have, the longer the start will be.

 

Regards,

Robin

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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Phew, I just copied my complete basic install onto a portable drive, so when I want extra installs, I just copy & paste, renaming the folder & the FS9.exe before running the new install.

All freeware should be good, but payware would need to be reinstalled.

I have 9 different FS2004 installs done this way. Some are very big, & the more aircraft & scenery you have, the longer the start will be.

 

Regards,

Robin

 

 

If you have a large enough external HDD why not just clone your disk that FS9 is on? This way you don't have to reinstall anything. If your main disk crashes or fails all you have to do is use the backup software's clone feature to clone the external HDD to a new HDD in your system. This has saved me numerous times over the years. I still run my original FS9 installation on Windows XP from when FS9 first came out. I have way too many add ons to lose them.

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I don't think there is a limit to the number in installs.

 

There is, kinda. :cool:

It depends on if you're running a 32 or 64 bit OS and how much RAM you have installed.

I had something over 1,024 aircraft folders installed on an old 32 bit machine and Windows just kind of gave up on keeping the folders sorted like it normally would. The old folders were in alpha-numeric order and the newer ones were listed in a newest-on-top order. :D

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It's disc.

 

Other than that, to answer your question, I see no reason you can't install this to every computer you have. There's no way for it to know, as it's on a disc, and doesn't require internet to play. (Because of those 2 factors, I can't think of any way they could have implemented limited-installs based DRM...)

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Install in C not default, Run in Compatibility Mode, As Administrator.I see this all the time and i have no clue what it all means or does.

I have always installed in default/program files and it seems to run ok but i still have windows xp.

Could somebody explain to me what is the difference between the two installations.

 

Thanks,nebojsa

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Windows 10 is very much more security conscious than XP, which was superceded by Windows 7,8,8.1 and now 10.

With Windows 10, the built-in security measures will prevent installing into Program Files. You must remember that FS2004 is nearly 16 years old, and the old programs are no longer 100% compatible with new operating systems.

 

Having said that, doing the explained mods will let FS2004 act 100% compatible, and actually runs faster and smoother in Windows 10, than in older operating systems.

 

I hope that explains.

 

Regards,

Robin

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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I'll explain slowly...

Faster & smoother means that the sim loads a bit faster than within older operating systems.

It also means that for me, my frame rates are probably at least 10-15% higher than in Windows 8.1 or 7.

 

Hopefully, that explains what I meant by 'faster' !

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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I'll explain slowly...

Faster & smoother means that the sim loads a bit faster than within older operating systems.

It also means that for me, my frame rates are probably at least 10-15% higher than in Windows 8.1 or 7.

 

Hopefully, that explains what I meant by 'faster' !

 

With all the hassle W10, I’m not sure a few seconds quicker load time and 3-5 FPS is worth it if on W7 with its troubles free installation.

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