wombat Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 Hi Guys, I have a ssd drive (F drive) for LM and ORBX stuff and it is getting full, can I install FTX Germany South on another drive and use it from the other drive ? If yes, how would I do that ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 Hello, no you cannot do that but you can move some or all of your ORBX folder to another drive and replace it in the simulator root folder with a symbolic link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat Posted October 4, 2017 Author Share Posted October 4, 2017 Hi Nick, thank you for your help once again, can you explain in more detail how I can move the Orbx folder to another drive, would that slow down the operation of the flight sim ? I do not know what you mean by symbolic link, I understand that I would need a link of some kind but not how to do it. Regards Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandsma Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 I'm faced with the same issue. My C: drive is a 250GB SSD and the D: drive is a 1TB HDD. I have about 6 GB of space left on the SSD and the HDD is almost completely empty. My Orbx file is about 70GB. At this point I'm basically can't buy anymore Orbx products without somehow moving some payware stuff to the D: drive. It would be nice if you could just automate the installation and mapping of Orbx files to a separate drive through the FTX Central application. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Sawyer Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 Hi Nick, I'd like explicit instruction too if you get the chance. What is a symbolic link? Thanks in advance for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 Did a google search for WIN 10 symbolic link. Here is the result. https://www.google.com/search?q=WIN+10+symbolic+link&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandsma Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 If you cut and paste the Orbx drive to a separate drive how would that affect future installations and updates? I would guess it would cause some issues with FTX Central. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 Hello, FTX Central requires that there is an ORBX folder inside the simulator root folder. There is no way round that. The way a symbolic link works is to place a "doorway" to a folder in another location into the location where that folder must be. The "doorway" appears identical to the actual folder to both FTX Central and Windows, so it is treated in exactly the same way. The symbolic link must be named ORBX and In this way, FTX Central and Windows see the symbolic link and can access all the files through it. Its size is zero on the drive where it is and all the files take up space only where they are. There are many ways to create a symbolic link, my preferred method is the Link Shell Extension because it integrates itself into the Windows File Explorer and is thereafter very easy to use. This site will provide you with the files and also a very comprehensive guide on how to install and use it. Once the symbolic link is in place, FTX Central continues to work as before, you can install, uninstall and update, but your drive with no space has none of the files on it. The only downside is that the files will only be accessed at the speed of the slower drive, so if they are placed on an HDD, that is the speed at which they will be accessed. Practically, this means slightly increased loading times but should have no noticeable effect during a flight. Leaving the core simulator files on the SSD does allow the simulator to work faster than if they were all on an HDD. It is worth also pointing out that if one has a small SSD as the system (C) drive, with a little careful management, most software can be installed somewhere else, there are few programs that actually require to be on the C drive, rather they are placed there by convention and not necessity. The Windows folder can also grow very large if no housekeeping is ever done and regular use of the Disk Clean up feature is a good idea. For example, if you never use the hibernate function, you can remove around 6 GB of redundant data. As an example, my C drive is a very modest 111 GB SSD. All the Windows folders amount to only 55 GB, that's Windows, Program files, Program Files (x86), Programdata and Users. On a second 238 GB SSD, I have Aerofly, two copies of FSX and P3D v4. Between them, 106 GB. I have a few old games on there too but there is still 110 GB of free space. Elsewhere, I have a total of 2382 GB (2.382 TB) of scenery which in the case of FTX is accessed using the symbolic links and in the case of the non FTX scenery, it is referenced in the simulator scenery library using the Scenery Config Editor. Hopefully there will be some ideas here which will help you manage your scenery files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Sawyer Posted October 4, 2017 Share Posted October 4, 2017 Thanks Nick, you are incredibly helpul. Wish I could get you a pay raise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat Posted October 4, 2017 Author Share Posted October 4, 2017 Hi Nick, Thanks for that but it will take some reading up so may take me sometime to do it. one more question if I may Nick do you ever get time to fly Orbx/LM yourself ? because you are always on here helping us non computer savvy guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxkillers Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 I would like a button to click on certain products, move to another drive, cause my main drive I use for onyl P3D is nearly full, and I have so many more orbx products to buy!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadtom65 Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 On 04/10/2017 at 4:19 PM, Jack Sawyer said: Thanks Nick, you are incredibly helpul. Wish I could get you a pay raise! I bet Nick wishes you could get him a pay rise as well. When I used a simbolic link, I used Junction Link Magic. Very easy to use and I believe free. I don’t bother now as large hard drives are quite cheap. Derek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcmusician Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 Yep thought about a SSD but figured it wouldn't take long to fill up. So I went with two WD 1 terabyte hard drives. 100 bucks total through Newegg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxkillers Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 I'm a bit late too respond (too late!) as, I'm simply going to replace my 250gb with a 1tb ssd drive and do a fresh re-install! (oww, oww, oww!) Plus I can install my other games such as flight sim world on to it (= = = Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walterg74 Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 On 11/29/2017 at 1:15 AM, maxkillers said: I would like a button to click on certain products, move to another drive, cause my main drive I use for onyl P3D is nearly full, and I have so many more orbx products to buy!!! That will not be possible. For the reasons Nick explained abov,e the sim expects the files to be in a certain place, so you can either manually move everything adding a symbolic link as explained. Being all of these type of addons go under the same folder/place, you cannot just move an addon by itself even using links. Additionally it seems to me (just my opinion) that this is highly imrpactical and not really sure how many people complicate themselves un this manner for nothing, instead of just installing on a separate drive or a drive big enough to hold all they want/need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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