Making a copy of X-Plane11 without duplicating library

[Mark1liver]

hi there,

              so the recommended way of trying out a beta or any other major change in x-plane11 is to make a copy of the working version and experiment on the copy in case you break anything.  Problem with that and Orbx is that Orbx uses symbolic links not shortcuts to point to the library of scenery.  When I copy X-Plane it copies all the scenery (hundreds of gigs) into the new version.  My drive isn't big enough for two versions of Orbx products so the copy fails.  How do I copy my custom scenery folder and copy the symbolic links (not the library elements they point to).  I've tried renaming the library temporarily to "break the link" but then the copy fails.  I have tried XCOPY with a /E /B extensions but then the symbolic links don't seem to copy at all.  Is there something you recommend so that I can have a clone of xplane with the same symbolic links in the Custom Scenery folder and a single copy of my Orbx products in a shared library.  Otherwise I'm going to have to delete the Symbolic links and replace them with shortcuts like I do for my Ortho4XP tiles.

thanks for the help

Mark

[Jon Clarke]

Welcome. The good news is you are asking how to do something I have already done and have been doing with several copies of XP that I have.

I suggest you follow this guide and all should be good as my installation of XP 11.50b6 is under 7GB as I have symbolic linked all the major folders from my 11.40/41 installation into 11.50b6.

I assume you still have an original copy of the pre beta/official  release 11.40?

Confirm that  your Custom Scenery folder in 11.40 all the Orbx files in it  are still fully intact.

If yes then I will reply with a guide on what to do.

I attach a pic of what my 11.50b6 XP directory looks like and you will see I have symbolic linked:

Custom Scenery (which contains symbolic linked addons from 3 other drives)

Global Scenery

Aircraft and Airfoils (this file also as it contains some mods to planes that need the Airfoil changes)

The second pic shows the volume in GBs of the installation.

I believe this is what you also want to do..please confirm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark1liver]

Hi Jon,

           oh very interesting.  Yes, that would be good.  I do have a clean copy of 11.40.  I actually have a copy of the beta6 also because I had mistakenly in the past deleted all the symbolic links and realizing my error had recreated shortcuts to the Orbx files.  That apparently allowed me to copy the 11.40 to a new location to perform the beta upgrade.  Unfortunately in Orbvx Central only one of my regions was showing up so I finally bit the bullet at the weekend, deleted everything, and re-downloaded everything. Problem solved that Orbx Central is now working as it should but now I have all the symbolic links back and will be unable to ever copy X-Plane to a new location the next time I need to experiment (without going back to delete the symbolic links again and recreate the shortcuts). 

 

Please tell me how you got to this point.  I'm assuming that you copy over only parts of the 11.40 release to a new location (without the Custom Scenery etc) and then create symbolic links to the parts that you did not copy in order to make the clone smaller.  That would work.  Having done that though, when you do the "upgrade" of the clone to Beta7,8,9 etc, if any of the files in those linked directories are updated in the process, wouldn't it update the original 11.40 with the beta version of the files?

 

hmmm, now you have me thinking.  Please do give me the process for achieving this Jon.

 

thanks

 

Mark

[Jon Clarke]

1 hour ago, Mark1liver said:

Hi Jon,

           oh very interesting.  Yes, that would be good.  I do have a clean copy of 11.40.  I actually have a copy of the beta6 also because I had mistakenly in the past deleted all the symbolic links and realizing my error had recreated shortcuts to the Orbx files.  That apparently allowed me to copy the 11.40 to a new location to perform the beta upgrade.  Unfortunately in Orbvx Central only one of my regions was showing up so I finally bit the bullet at the weekend, deleted everything, and re-downloaded everything. Problem solved that Orbx Central is now working as it should but now I have all the symbolic links back and will be unable to ever copy X-Plane to a new location the next time I need to experiment (without going back to delete the symbolic links again and recreate the shortcuts). 

 

Please tell me how you got to this point.  I'm assuming that you copy over only parts of the 11.40 release to a new location (without the Custom Scenery etc) and then create symbolic links to the parts that you did not copy in order to make the clone smaller.  That would work.  Having done that though, when you do the "upgrade" of the clone to Beta7,8,9 etc, if any of the files in those linked directories are updated in the process, wouldn't it update the original 11.40 with the beta version of the files?

 

hmmm, now you have me thinking.  Please do give me the process for achieving this Jon.

 

thanks

 

Mark

I will tomorrow if that's OK with you. It is really simple and uncomplicated......if you know what you are doing

[Jon Clarke]

Scrub that previous post. I can do the process now,

Install 11.50 by doing a second install of XPlane. It will download an older version initially. Run the Update option in the XP installer including ticking the Beta option. Now you will have 11.50b6 installed correctly.

Now delete in 11.50b6  Aircraft, Airfoils and Global Scenery. Before you delete Custom Scenery cut and paste the new Global Airports folder. It contains some new airports I believe.

Then delete Custom Scenery folder.

Unzip the tool I attach called HardlInkSheel into your Program Files. It will present you with an option to "Pick Link Source"and create symbolic links when you right click on a folder, and then an option to "Drop As" > symbolic link into the folder of your choice. Just use the tool experimentally to get the hang of its very simple operation.

Open your 11.40 installation and hover over Aircraft and right click to get the Pick Link Source option. then open 11.50b6 and right click and choose Drop As...symbolic link. Done.

Do the same with Airfoils and Global Scenery.

Now do the same with your 11.40 Custom Scenery folder. Regarding the saved new copy of Global Airports the choice is yours as to whether you overwrite the old copy with the new one. That is your decision but I initially advise you leave the one in 11.40 as is as it is now symbolic linked to 11.60.

I would then open my Preferences folder in 11.40/Output and copy into 11.50 Output/preferences  my Control Profiles,X-Plane joystick settings, X-Plane calibration, X-Plane Keys. This saves you having to do any joystick calibration etc.

By doing the above you have sym linked all the essential XP folders without touching any of the important new ones that 11.50b6 has like Resources and all its contents except for minor files that i mentioned above for the Output folder in Resources.

Regarding Plugins: I would experiment one at a time and don't be excessive. It is a beta version remember and you are wanting to use it rather than test it.

FYI I have the following plugins working fine. Fly with Lua but only 3jfps Script installed, Marine traffic, Traffic Global, Avitab, DataRefEditor, SAM and ATC Chatter. All these are symbolic linked as per my attached pic.

Good luck. It should all work fine it is just getting the hang of the LinkShell tool, but it really is very simple to use.

 

HardLinkShellExt_X64.zip

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark1liver]

hi Jon,

           thanks very much for the detailed help.  I will definitely give that a go.  It actually makes me want to maintain an aircraft and scenery directory outside of xplane altogether and symbolic link back to them from the various different revisions of xplane as needed. 

 

thanks again!