JohnnyJohnJohn Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Can you successfully run Prepar3d from a USB Drive? Or would that be considered to slow? Thanks for any thoughts and theories on it. :smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Harmes Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Hi, It would not be recommended. The disk/data transfer rate will be very slow. I do in fact run some addon scenery from an external HDD at times, but I would definitely advise against running the entire sim from one. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Interesting question John. I've never tried that. But.....I'm going to try to install P3Dv3 on a 128GB USB drive. I'll let you know what happens (I'm curious too).....Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 OK...Here's what I know so far. I installed P3Dv3 on a USB drive using a USB2 port (worst case...USB3 would be faster)......and.....it works just fine. Frame rates with all the sliders full-right are in the mid-40's. The stuttering is no worse than the SSD. More testing to do. I have no idea what will happen with complex add-ons but I'll let you know.........Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Actual performance of the sim doesn't depend on the drive the sim is installed on once the sim is active and running. Loading times are very much affected, however. I'm guessing the USB2 port is the slowest, followed by an internal HDD, with an internal SSD being the fastest, as far as loading times are concerned. After that, the sim's performance is solely dependent upon the sim's settings, the gpu, and the computer's cpu, and who knows what else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Right on Stew. Here's an excerpt from an earlier post.......... Darn. I'm on a trip and can't get at the numbers I recorded from a quick study I did regarding load times on various drive types. I compared the Megascenery load times on an internal 7200 RPM HDD, three external USB3 HDD's (5400, 7200, and 10000 RPM), and internal SSD and an external SSD. All the external drives were bare drives mounted in a USB3 docking station. Here's how they ranked from slowest loading to fastest loading: 5400 RPM External HDD 7200 RPM External HDD 7200 RPM Internal HDD 10000 RPM External HDD External SSD Internal SSD I find of interest two things.....the 10000 RPM external HDD load times were faster than than the 7200 RPM internal HDD times and that the load times for the external SSD were faster than the internal HDD. But.....(there are always one of those) all that being said, once the sim (both FSX and P3D) finished the initial load I could see NO noticeable difference between any of these drives in-game. Nada, none, zilch, zero noticeable difference. My conclusion? It really doesn't matter what drive configuration I use for the scenery. All mileage is, of course, variable..... Now I'll have to add a USB drive.................. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Update 1......I installed ORBX SoCal. This is really dense stuff. No problem at all. P3Dv3 runs just fine on USB2. It takes a loooong time to load but once loaded all looks OK. Tomorrow I'll try to get a comparison between the USB2 drive and an internal SSD. Should be interesting..........Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyJohnJohn Posted August 27, 2018 Author Share Posted August 27, 2018 Thanks for all your suggestions! I'm still hesitant on it - Doug, you seem to be having the best of luck with P3D V3......but not sure on 4. That's the only one I have..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Harmes Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 I stand by my original comment of it not being recommended. It is possible but you will have slow load times and terrain will/could load slower resulting in blurries. It all depends on what type of connection you are using (usb 2, usb 3.0, usb 3.1) and more importantly the data transfer rate of the external hard drive you are using. External SSD drives actually have a pretty good transfer rate. In my experience usb ports can be poor regarding performance and reliability. There's nothing stopping you from giving it a go anyway. I will also be curious as to how it performs over time. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurizio Giorgi Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 External SSD are very fast, i tried one linked to a 3.1 usb port. Recommended Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 10 hours ago, Scott Harmes said: I stand by my original comment of it not being recommended. It is possible but you will have slow load times and terrain will/could load slower resulting in blurries. It all depends on what type of connection you are using (usb 2, usb 3.0, usb 3.1) and more importantly the data transfer rate of the external hard drive you are using. External SSD drives actually have a pretty good transfer rate. In my experience usb ports can be poor regarding performance and reliability. There's nothing stopping you from giving it a go anyway. I will also be curious as to how it performs over time. Cheers, I didn't say I recommended it either.....I don't....but, I just wanted to see if it worked . At least I know now that if there is no other alternative it's worth a try.........Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 4 minutes ago, Triplane said: I didn't say I recommended it either.....I don't....but, I just wanted to see if it worked . At least I know now that if there is no other alternative it's worth a try.........Doug . Replied to the wrong post.....duh....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 48 minutes ago, Maurizio Giorgi said: External SSD are very fast, i tried one linked to a 3.1 usb port. Recommended Absolutely....I have a full FSX/ORBX installation running on an external Samsung EVO840 in a USB3 docking station and, except for a little longer initial time for loading, I see absolutely no performance difference as compared the internal SSD..........Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Update 2.....I wondered what would happen with photo-realistic scenery on USB2. So, I installed MegaScenery Florida 4X and guess what.....frame rates are still in the mid-40"s and no stutters (but it took a looooooooooooooooooooooog time to load). The scenery, once in-game, loads just fine. Tomorrow I'll try USB3 and see what happens. The problem is that I have 10 external USB3 drives connected and I have to find a way to get a USB3 port free.. More to come..................Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 OK....here's the deal.....I've decided to blow away my P3Dv4 install and put it on the USB drive. More to come.................Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 OK...last update...I promise. I have no idea why but P3Dv4.3 will not install on the thumb drive. It stops when installing Content and is then completely unresponsive. I even let it sit overnight (on the 4th try) and nothing. It's still sitting there doing nothing nine hours later. So.....it was fun and I learned some things but I know when to quit.....Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurizio Giorgi Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Hi Doug, it probably depends if you have a docking USB instead of a direct connection with only one drive. I have never had problems to install programs on external hd, it's possible that P3D installation behaves in a different way, but i find it strange. I have so many huge games installed in external drives and they work just fine. I tried to save a very huge file in the external SSD and i remained surprised by his speed. Obviously it reads much more faster than the write process and it depends also by the motherboard. I don't remember the brand or the specification because they gave me that drive to check, but damn, it was very good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Ciao Maurizio. It seems the problem is specific to the thumb drive. I have 10 external drives (nine HDD and one SSD) on this system and I've never seen anything that wouldn't install and run on any of these drives. They are all on docking stations and, at one time or another, I've had every version of P3D on these drives with no problems at all. I had the thumb drive connected directly to a USB3.1 port and still no luck. I finally just gave up........Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurizio Giorgi Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Oh yes Doug, i see now that with Thumb drives they mean a usb pen, i didn't know that I have 3 of those, with different speeds and capacity, buth they are very slows in writing stuffs, apart one of them, a bit faster than the others, but for sure i have never tried to run a game with it. That one i tried was a USB SSD, 250 GB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Maurizio...I need to change the subject for a moment. My wife is Italian (Gaeta) and we have been to Italy many times. We're going to be there in November with our son and there is is a very special occasion to celebrate. What do you recommend as the very finest restaurant in Firenze ? ..... Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurizio Giorgi Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 That's fantastic Dough! well, this is the most chic restaurant in Florence with a real sofisticated cuisine https://enotecapinchiorri.it/ Anyway, you probably know that here we have a fantastic variety of dishes that maybe are not so chic, but with unbeatable flavours. When I and my wife we want to eat a very good "bistecca alla fiorentina", or other traditional local deliciouses, we go to Fiesole in a very little restaurant, it looks like more as a tavern, but there you eat like a God spending a reasonable amount. Anyway the Enoteca Pinchiorri is one of the best restaurants in Europe, so if you go there, your succes is assured Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 Grazie mille Maurizio. Mio figlio è stato solo in Italia una volta prima e vogliamo rendere questo un viaggio speciale per lui. Ciao..... Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurizio Giorgi Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Di niente Dough! Sono sicuro che ne rimarra' affascinato!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triplane Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 Sei molto gentile. Grazie ancora per l'aiuto..... Ciao...........Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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