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How can I retrieve individual files ,folders etc from the Fs9 Installation disks?


HoratioWondersocks

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Hello

I did manage to do this year's ago, but can't remember how.

I tried putting disk 3 of the four used by Fs9 into my cd ROM drive .

I selected 'view' and verily my cd drive did hum.

After some time I could see various CAB files and other stuff.

The problem was that Cd ROM kept whirring and whirring and whirring some more and that's all that happened.

In the end I gave up waiting and cancelled the operation.

I particularly want to extract the default Fs9 texture folder.

If somebody can point me in the right way of achieving this I would appreciate it.

I do have Fs9 backups and could use the texture file from them, but I want to be sure that file is absolutely the default one.

Cheers Andy

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The main "Flight SImulator 9\Texture" folder (not the Scenery\World\Texture folder) is actually on disk2 in MSGAME3.CAB. You can open it with WinZip or whatever and extract it to a temporary folder with "use folder names" checked and you should find inside, the complete default Texture folder (as well as the Gauges, Indeo, Lessons, Messages, Modules, Script, Uires, and Weather folders incidentally)

 

...but, that doesn't take into account that possibly some of those files get replaced when you add the 9.1 update. I don't think they do but I'm not 100% positive on that.

 

IMHO a better approach to a foolproof backup of FS9 would be to temporarily rename your existing Flight Simulator 9 folder something like Flight Simulator 9.off and make a new, empty Flight Simulator 9 folder in it's place.

 

Install FS9 from the disks into the empty folder, add the 9.1 update.

 

Move the new fresh FS9 installation off onto a backup disk somewhere and set permissions on the backup so that no files may be moved, deleted, or added which will prevent dumb-thumb mistakes from modifying it. Files can still be copied out of the backup folder but Windows won't let you actually modify anything unless you remove the permissions first.

 

Finally rename the Flight Simulator 9.off folder back to Flight Simulator 9 and then you can copy whatever you need from the backup into the active FS9 installation to restore whatever you need.

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The main "Flight SImulator 9\Texture" folder (not the Scenery\World\Texture folder) is actually on disk2 in MSGAME3.CAB. You can open it with WinZip or whatever and extract it to a temporary folder with "use folder names" checked and you should find inside, the complete default Texture folder (as well as the Gauges, Indeo, Lessons, Messages, Modules, Script, Uires, and Weather folders incidentally)

 

...but, that doesn't take into account that possibly some of those files get replaced when you add the 9.1 update. I don't think they do but I'm not 100% positive on that.

 

IMHO a better approach to a foolproof backup of FS9 would be to temporarily rename your existing Flight Simulator 9 folder something like Flight Simulator 9.off and make a new, empty Flight Simulator 9 folder in it's place.

 

Install FS9 from the disks into the empty folder, add the 9.1 update.

 

Move the new fresh FS9 installation off onto a backup disk somewhere and set permissions on the backup so that no files may be moved, deleted, or added which will prevent dumb-thumb mistakes from modifying it. Files can still be copied out of the backup folder but Windows won't let you actually modify anything unless you remove the permissions first.

 

Finally rename the Flight Simulator 9.off folder back to Flight Simulator 9 and then you can copy whatever you need from the backup into the active FS9 installation to restore whatever you need.

 

Thanks Jim

At the moment I have settled for extracting the texture folder from get another backup on an external drive. Iam almost? certain that these are the correct textures, but once I get a bee in my bonnet about some thing I won't let it go.

I did finally work out how to extract files from my orig Fs9 disks so that is something, I did notice though that some files from the original texture folder were missing ,so you may be right about installation the 9.1 patch as well.

Anyway for the moment iam done with tinkering for the day.

It's amazing how what starts as a supposedly a short session of fixing things in Fs9 turns into another three hour eye straining ,nerve jangling session .

Thanks again for your input and detailed description of what to do when trying to replace files .

I will bare these in mind for another attempt.........but not today.

Iam thinking if I had replaced my texture file with the one from the original Fs9 disk I would have encountered ctds because textures needed by my 9.1 Fs9 would not be available.In fact when I tried to run a saved flight that's exactly what happened it reached about 80 percent then Fs shut down.

Fortunately with my other backup texture folder put in place the same flight that ctdd ran again correctly.

Still learning things about are venerable old (but most excellent simulator)

 

Cheers Andy

 

Cheers to yo

Edited by HoratioWondersocks
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I use that system with my scenery texture testing. I did a fresh install, and backed up my scenery folders. so its easy for me to try new global scenery textures, and not to stress if i mess up.

 

Hello Robin

After you had created your new install from the original Fs9 disks ,did you apply the 9 to 9.1 update as well? (As Jim described in his reply)

It looks as though update added new texture files to the original 9.0 amongst other things.

 

Thanks Andy

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I did the 9.1 update & then promptly saved everything, including the folder in My Documents, to a portable drive. So, There's my backap, & I also use that to set up my multiple FS2004 installs, I have 8!

 

It's easy to do..

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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I did the 9.1 update & then promptly saved everything, including the folder in My Documents, to a portable drive. So, There's my backap, & I also use that to set up my multiple FS2004 installs, I have 8!

 

It's easy to do..

 

Hello Robin

You state that you saved everything "including the folder in My Documents " to a portable drive.

Could you explain this bit please what folder in My Documents?

PS can you install a new working copy of Fs9 from the original disks to a external SSD labeled F: for example rather than the default C:

Sorry to keep on about these things, but have been trying to search the net for further info on the topic of backups ,moving copies to different locations ,instaling fresh installs from the original disks etc ,but find myself getting more confused ,as different people have different ideas on these subjects.

 

Thanks for your help

Cheers Andrew

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No problem, Andrew. I've been FS2004'ing ever since the darn thing came out!

I did a fresh install, then the 9.1 update & also the 9.1 no-cd patch.

I then copied the whole folder to a portable drive, into a newly created folder that I've called Default FS backup.

I then went to 'My Documents' folder & copied the Flight Simulator folder to the portable drive as well.

I now have a complete backup of a fresh install

 

That is the basic way. What I've done as well, is to add whatever scenery & planes that I usually fly into FS2004, making sure that is working well, & then I do the same thing again, backing up the install to the portable drive, into a folder called Working FS2004. This way, if things fall over, I have a basic install that I can copy & paste back. Bear in mind that ofted deleting the fs9.cfg will sometimes sort out issues. When you run the sim again, agter deleting the fs9.cfg, a new file will be created.

 

OK, so now you have a working FS2004 & you want to do a 2nd install. I have a separate install for Alaska, as an example, with only Alaskan themed scenery & aircraft textures. I find that having multiple installs keeps the sims more managable & no chance of scenery conflicts.

 

So, for your 2nd install. Lets do a 'clean'install.....

Go to your portable drive, & copy the sim folder called Default FS backup, & paste the whole folder into C:\

Once that is done, rename the newly pasted folder to FS2005, as an example. Open up that folder & remane the FS9.exe to FS2005 for example. Then, right-click that renamed exe & Send to Desktop.

 

Now run that newly pasted exe. All should work, & you now have 2 installs of FS2004 that do not affect each other.

 

This way, you wil still have a clean backup & an easy way to have multiple unique FS2004 installs. Remember that each new sim folder MUST have a unique name, as also the exe.

 

So, I have an Alaska install, a Golden Wings install, Ford Tri-Motor, Vintage, Heritage & a couple more.

 

I hope I have not confused you, Andrew.. It's actually very easy. In fact, I've lost my original set of FS2004 disks, & do all my installs from my portable drive.

 

Give a call if you need any clarification.

By the way, I use a copy program called teracopy as a default copy & it's far faster than Microsoft'scopy.

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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No problem, Andrew. I've been FS2004'ing ever since the darn thing came out!

I did a fresh install, then the 9.1 update & also the 9.1 no-cd patch.

I then copied the whole folder to a portable drive, into a newly created folder that I've called Default FS backup.

I then went to 'My Documents' folder & copied the Flight Simulator folder to the portable drive as well.

I now have a complete backup of a fresh install

 

That is the basic way. What I've done as well, is to add whatever scenery & planes that I usually fly into FS2004, making sure that is working well, & then I do the same thing again, backing up the install to the portable drive, into a folder called Working FS2004. This way, if things fall over, I have a basic install that I can copy & paste back. Bear in mind that ofted deleting the fs9.cfg will sometimes sort out issues. When you run the sim again, agter deleting the fs9.cfg, a new file will be created.

 

OK, so now you have a working FS2004 & you want to do a 2nd install. I have a separate install for Alaska, as an example, with only Alaskan themed scenery & aircraft textures. I find that having multiple installs keeps the sims more managable & no chance of scenery conflicts.

 

So, for your 2nd install. Lets do a 'clean'install.....

Go to your portable drive, & copy the sim folder called Default FS backup, & paste the whole folder into C:\

Once that is done, rename the newly pasted folder to FS2005, as an example. Open up that folder & remane the FS9.exe to FS2005 for example. Then, right-click that renamed exe & Send to Desktop.

 

Now run that newly pasted exe. All should work, & you now have 2 installs of FS2004 that do not affect each other.

 

This way, you wil still have a clean backup & an easy way to have multiple unique FS2004 installs. Remember that each new sim folder MUST have a unique name, as also the exe.

 

So, I have an Alaska install, a Golden Wings install, Ford Tri-Motor, Vintage, Heritage & a couple more.

 

I hope I have not confused you, Andrew.. It's actually very easy. In fact, I've lost my original set of FS2004 disks, & do all my installs from my portable drive.

 

Give a call if you need any clarification.

By the way, I use a copy program called teracopy as a default copy & it's far faster than Microsoft'scopy.

 

Hello Robin

just to say firstly i appreciate the time and effort you have put into trying to help me with this .

I read your post and also Jim's on the way you would go about achieving what i want. I did this first thing this morning when i tend to be calmer and can take time to read things carefully.

There are just a couple of extra points though...

 

1 My working copy of FS9 no longer resides in my C:drive , I had to move it to create some space on my small internal SSD (i.e. 240g )so I can update my Windows 10 to the latest version. I moved FS9

to a portable external SSD labelled F: and fs9 runs perfectly well from that location .It was just a case of copy and paste from C:

My question is does the fact the FS9 no longer in C: cause any problems with me trying to achieve what you and Jim have succeeded in doing.

 

Query 2.

To save an awful lot of ballyhoo, i was wondering if a fellow simmer could send me via internet an untouched 9.1 version (has to be 9.1)of the FS9 Texture folder? is this possible or is it to big an item to be sent direct to me via the internet?

 

Thanks to all

 

Andrew

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