Hank Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Hi Maurice, I'm sort of picking on you, as you seem to know quite a bit about computers as per your input on this forum? When one upgrades to another computer; can you "ghost" the whole C:\ drive (which would include FSX and all the FTX addons) to an external hard disk drive, and then re "ghost" it onto the new HDD drive of the new computer? This to avoid having to try and get another activation code from Microsoft for FSX. However, if one can do this, does the "ghost" also include the relevant operating system one is using at the time? In other words; I would like to get Windows7 installed on the new computer, but I have Vista on the old computer. So when I 'ghost" , would Vista also be on that drive? I have bought the new DVD of FTX, and intend to use it on the new computer only; but then there are all the other OZx programs and other payware airfields as well. Is this a worthwhile excercise, or have I got it all wrong? Cheers Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susto Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 ... When one upgrades to another computer; can you "ghost" the whole C:\ drive (which would include FSX and all the FTX addons) to an external hard disk drive, and then re "ghost" it onto the new HDD drive of the new computer? ... I just did this yesterday. Swapped two RAID-0 drives and a Radeon 4850 for a couple of Raptors plus a GTX285. The "ghosting" worked flawlessly, in half a hour I had everything back to normal. The only thing that needed updating were the video drivers, but that was easy. On the other hand, if you are changing all the components (motherboard, cpu, chipset...) then I don't think it would be worth the effort. You'd have to update all drivers and probably would end up with a sub-optimal system. Best luck, Juan Andres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 best option is to have all your things on separate partitions or HDD's the less stuff is cluttering your C drive the better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Firstly thanks for your confidence in me but why make additional work for yourself if you don't need to mate . We need to work out just what you want to achieve. Being VERY cautious of Pre built PC's as these often have hidden recovery partitions. Is the old pc to be relegated to the bin sold off for parts? If this is the case then can move the HDD to the new PC and continue on where you left off. Sure it WILL get pissed at you for a short period of time regarding new hardware and drivers for the mainboard etc but this is easily overcome with the Driver disk from the Mainboard manufacturer. You wouldn't wast time running GHOST to an external drive and then onto the new PC but get the HDD from the New PC and place it in the Old PC and directly transfer. Or as is the case with most PC's these days utilise the ethernet ports and direct transfer via GHOST. I prefer to have a small "C:\" with only the OS on it because THAT is the one that WILL fall over and THAT is the one that contains ALL your Profile saved game info and so much more. You cannot GHOST Software installed in VISTA to Win 7 sorry that will require a reinstallation. BUT what you may like to do is in fact run the OLD drive AND the new W7 in the same PC Case in dual boot thus keeping all you old stuff and have the new as well. you WILL have to re install All your other programing can be simply bucket copied unless there are certain files that prevent this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skypilot Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I know Seagate have software available to clone (and do other functions) old/new disks - the big downfall for this is they must be Seagate disks - I suppose other manufacturers would have something similar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Posted June 14, 2009 Author Share Posted June 14, 2009 Thank you one and all for your response. Maurice, my plan is this: I have a home computer (desk top) which sounds like it has a failing HDD. This has all my photo's, financial programs and Video software on it as well as my work diary. It is a Pentium 4 and used to have my FS9 on it as well. I already have that drive backed up on an external HDD. Now the peripheral hardware on that computer is a little bit obsolete, so I'm thinking of trashing that. I 'll keep the case and transfer the existing gaming computer's hardware into that case including the HDD's. So the specs I have up in my signature now, will become my home computer. I then want to buy the new Asus P6T deluxe mother board so that it will run Win7 and the i7 965 extreme CPU along with new HDD's and GTX295 graphics card and put them into my existing Flight Sim computer case. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but from your answer, it seems that I won't be able to "ghost" FSX from my existing HD because I'm using Vista at present and will go to the new OS Win7? It will mean a re-install? Also from Wolters' reply; you only have you OS on your C:\ drive and then put your FS on any additional internal drives? So when it defaults to your C:\ drive, you just change it to whatever your other drive is? I thought doing that, placing your games on another drive, would in fact reduce your optimum performance? Have I got that wrong? Cheers Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumman Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Hank, You're definitely up for a re-install of FSX with that plan. You can install it easily on another drive, just by changing the default location at the start of the install procedure. For example I have all my flight sim stuff on a separate drive, and FSX is installed in F:\FSX\ If anything it should perform better than on C drive, provided the drive is of equivalent performance, because FSX won't be competing with the O/S or other apps for access to C drive. I'm not sure whether you'll have an issue with activation. When I re-installed it I just had to enter the product key that came with the DVD. I can't recall if it activated online, but there was certainly no phone activation required, and no problem installing it a second time on the same machine. Maybe it will require dealing with the dreaded MS phone activation procedure if you put it on another machine. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Hank, As Greg stated, your plan will call for a re-install of FSX since you are changing operating systems from Vista to Windows 7. Also, I agree with what Greg said about installing FSX on a separate internal hard drive. I have Windows 7 installed onto my C: drive, and FSX is installed (along with all my FSX addons) onto a separate physical internal hard drive, my D: drive. As for the FSX reactivation, whether or not you are able to use online activation has no bearing on the fact that it will be installed on a new computer (in this instance anyway). More to the point, you should be able to use the online activation method if it has been awhile since you last installed and activated that copy of FSX on any computer. If it does not work, then the phone activation will have to be used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Posted June 15, 2009 Author Share Posted June 15, 2009 Greg and Sniper 31, Thanks for your replies. It is going to be an interesting excercise when I go ahead with it ( a few months yet) in case our dollar goes up and all the hardware becomes a bit cheaper. I've also been keeping my eye on forums with people using Windows7 to see if anything does go wrong with it as far as FSX is concerned. I am going to put my FS9 onto the extra internal drive I have and see if it makes a difference, however my existing specs are more than adequate for FS9. Cheers Hank P.S. Just got the Wilco Tilt Rotor in the mail, will install and see how it flies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 HANK Don't Ghost Anything. There is really no point, and worse than that - it is a bad move. You would probably not be able to boot the computer (if we're talking a system drive), the hardware is sufficiently dissimilar. You should definitely take this opportunity to make a fresh start. If your information (ie the stuff that can't be reconstituted) is on an external HDD, then that is what you need. The best upgrade is a fresh OS install .. on new hardware .... even better. Simply dragging an old FS9 install over won't work -as there are registry entries and a whole lot of behind the scenes things that won't be there. With regard to FSX .. you should make a plan of how to do your FSX install (remembering that you have to start up FSX between service packs, for example) Aren't you lucky the SP3 DVD will be available for your reinstall! For those that have a dying/ageing/too small system HDD, there is a low-level diskcopying program (runs from a FDD) that does a raw-copy of one system drive onto another. It is then a simple matter of adjusting the partition sizes to use the full capacity of a new drive. This is only useful if you are keeping the same other hardware. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Posted June 15, 2009 Author Share Posted June 15, 2009 Ian, What do you mean " have to start up between service packs" for FSX? Cheers Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 Hank, I think that Ian refers to that you need to run fsX BEFORE installing the next SP, the starting up every time is so that the scenery Dbase and other items get activated as should, if you don't do this all kind of wierd effects can show their ugly heads and that is something we would like to forecome So it should go something like this: Point the installer to where you want to install fsX, ( preferably separate partition or other HDD, not on the C: drive ! ) Install fsX, start fsX, do a little flight, shut down fsX, install the SP1, start fsX, do a lil flight, shut down fsX, install SP2 or Acceleraation, start fsX, do a lil flight, shut down fsX DEFRAG the whole lot, install FTX do a lil test flight, shut down fsX, defrag the thing again I think that about covers it I hear you it's a pain in the proverbial spot, but afterwards you'll be happy that all is installed properly AND functioning as should Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Posted June 16, 2009 Author Share Posted June 16, 2009 Thank you Wolter, for your great explanation. Now I see what Ian meant. I've just received the FTX DVD in the mail, but will wait till I get the new computer before installing it. For now I'm going to go back to FS9, which I have just moved over to a seperate drive. I am going to install NL2000 on it (38gigabytes) and see what it looks like in comparison to FTX. Still it is the country of my birth (though I haven't been back) and I'de like to fly around it a bit. I wasn't impressed with VFR Netherlands, but another member of our forum, Hendrik from Ireland, reckons it is pretty good. Cheers Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wearlej Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 There is really no point, and worse than that - it is a bad move. You would probably not be able to boot the computer (if we're talking a system drive), the hardware is sufficiently dissimilar. Well, there is the Sysprep option, but that can be a royal pain, a fresh install is always better. Another good alternative to Ghost is Acronis, I used that when I put a faster HDD into my laptop, got a windows experience rating improvement from 4.8 to 5.2! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 hcornea is totally off the mark regarding GHOST and different hardware, totally. I am in brisbane currently with the wife having back surgery and my system at home have been duplicated on the Laptop useing GHOST and then removing the drivers for the PC at home and replacing them with thoes for the Toshiba Laptop which isn't supposed to work with XP either so I seriously doubt that hardware will be an issue. The OS change as has been said will be much harder. you could export the registry strings from XP and import them to W 7 but for the basic user this in really NOT an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 ....you could export the registry strings from XP and import them to W7.... I'll defer to Mozz experience with his wife's laptop ... but seriously Mozz, you aren't suggesting that, having purchased brand spanking hardware, that porting over your current system install .... with all its windows foibles, registry entry errors and fragmentation, the occasional corrupted file + (insert unknown glitch here) .... is better than a fresh OS install on a new clean drive .... or is the right way to go. Are you? You can do lots of things ... but that doesn't mean that you should. It may boot up, but how likely is it to be running as well as it should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Posted June 19, 2009 Author Share Posted June 19, 2009 Hi Ian, Your reply to Mozz does seem to bear some merit, and I shall heed it's suggested path. Re-install everything from the original programs to avoid any possibility of corrupted files getting onto the new system. Seems like good advice. Thanks for sharing my post. Regards Hank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 I have made a complete copy of my main system to my Laptop so when traveling everything is duplicated, granted I did have a few driver issues as the main board in the Lappy has a different chipset etc on board sound and a few other things I had to remove and then update the drivers for but once the correct driver's were running the Lap Top is as happy as the proverbial "Pig in Mud". Windows did not ask for nor receive any reactivation WGA or other PIA Nag for MS You can easily migrate you old settings etc from a previous system to new hardware by using any of the tools for this purpose around on the Web or as has been suggested a fresh install I don't think however that XP will export it's settings in a format suitable for Win 7 though XP to XP is fine and there are upgrade tools for XP to Vista, yes you can export registry strings from XP to W7 for individual programs should it be necessary but is has its problems since W7 utilizes different structure and permission structure so moving you system from XP to W7 is not likely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.