ACTIVE FSX is draining my C drive

[nkurun]

Hi,

 

Since I installed Ireland and Northern Ireland yesterday (and the PNW 3D lights patch plus the latest Orbx libraries), I have been unable to load Ireland (or any EU scenery, for that matter). The scenery loading indicator does not get beyond 27%, at which point the size of my C hard drive starts to decrease indefinitely (like it does when Orbx installers are unwrapping), until I turn off the computer. The C drive also fails to come back to its previous size, even after rebooting.  I did install both Ireland packages incrorrectly to start with (i.e. runing them directly from the downloads folder) but have since extracted and installed them both correctly from folders made specifically for each of them. Any idea how I can solve this problem?

 

Robert.

[sigwx]

Hi Robert,

 

I would suggest to run a file system check first, and then run a drive cleanup. When done, try deinstallation of the new packages. When your system runs in normal mode again, install only one package in time, and check if everything is fine, before installing the nex one.

 

Good luck,

 

Andreas

[nkurun]

Hi Andreas,

 

Thanks for the quick reply! How do I run a file system check and drive clean up?  There is no uninstall option in my Orbx list, although I have already tried deleting all six Ireland and Northern Ireland folders in the Orbx EU region folder, then re-installing them again, with no success.

 

Robert.

[sigwx]

Hi Robert,

 

for FS check click computer on desktop and on drive C open the properties menu with right mouse click, there you will 1st find the cleanup button near the disc picture. Sorry, I don't know the exact english text here, the german text probably won't help ;-) This will remove all your temporarly files trash bin etc.

 

In the tab 'Tools' of drive properties. you will find the fs check. A quick scan option will be enough. You have to reboot your computer, then the chkdsk will start.

 

BR,

Andreas

[nkurun]

Hi Andreas,

 

Thanks for that. I have run the chkdsk programme which found no errors with the file structure and have also run the cleanup programme, but have still lost several gigabytes of my C drive, even after doing that! I have also deleted the Ireland and Northern ireland folders but the 'leaking' from C drive still occurs at 27% whenever I try to load an EU scenery and I never get beyond that figure, so cannot use any of my Orbx EU products! Does anyone have any other possible solutions?

 

Robert.

[Ronski]

Hi Robert,

 

just to add to Andreas,  when you open C:/ drive properties, could you tell us how much free space it is showing?

 

 

Ron.

[nkurun]

Hi Ron,

 

It is showing 70.8 GB free at the moment (on a 1TB drive) but should be showing about 75GB free.

 

Robert.

[Nick Cooper]

Not enough free space.

An absolute minimum would be around 20%, 185 gb.

It might be different if the drive was used only to store read only files but I doubt if

with the OS on there too, FSX has enough room to move.

I don't think the C drive is "leaking", I think that when FSX reaches 27%, it is full.

 

Regards,

Nick.

[sigwx]

It is showing 70.8 GB free at the moment (on a 1TB drive) but should be showing about 75GB free.

Urgh. That is pretty much. Last try on my previous topic, did you repeate file cleanups also for other probable users on your PC?

 

Otherwise, I think you need one of these diskdir or diskview tools to search for your biggest files on your PC. Much work, but I have no better idea yet.

 

Andreas

[Ronski]

Hi Robert,

 

As Nick say's, that's not a lot of free space, even though you'd think 70 gig would be heaps for FSX. but there are other factors.

 

Some other cleanup tips;

 

1. right click on recycle bin, >properties,  reduce the size to 2-3% or about 5 gig , the default is around 85+gig, way too big for 1tbt drive.

2. Go back to disk cleanup, this time select 'more options' tab,  remove all but last restore point.

3. open contol panel, >programs and features,  have a look at all installed programs, see anything you don't use any more, or don't need? If so remove.

4. open 'downloads'  any driver updates you downloaded, or program files that were successfully installed and therefore the download file is no longer needed?

5.  Do you have another drive?  or an external drive?  Any large files with videos or photo's that can be stored other than C:/ drive?

6.  finally,  use this temp file cleaner, it will remove all users temp files and clear caches etc.  It's free and works well,  put on desktop, right click and 'run as admin'

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files/file/187-tfc-temp-file-cleaner-by-oldtimer/

 

Another thing, Can you turn off your anti virus for a time, then run fsx. usually by disabling shields for an amount of minutes or untill restarted etc.

if doing this makes a difference, set AV to exclude FSX from being scanned, usually in your AV >settings,>exclusions.

 

can't think of anything else at the moment,

 

Ron.

[ak416]

Not enough free space.

An absolute minimum would be around 20%, 185 gb.

It might be different if the drive was used only to store read only files but I doubt if

with the OS on there too, FSX has enough room to move.

I don't think the C drive is "leaking", I think that when FSX reaches 27%, it is full.

 

Regards,

Nick.

The file sizes do not change while FSX is operating, FSX is not extracting or unpacking or moving anything, it is simply loading the files stored on your hard drive. 

[Rob Newman]

It sounds to me like FSX is loading the scenery into the systems VIRTUAL MEMORY (a portion of the C: drive set aside for use as extra memory if your RAM is filled)... This is why it's "filling" your C: drive as it loads... 

 

The good news is, if you see it filling constantly, then it's doing what it's supposed to do... Your PC is working and simply moving data to the virtual memory (sometimes also called a "PAGE FILE")... So if you reboot at that stage, the data in the virtual memory can still be there when the PC comes back up... Which explains why you appear to have lost part of your C:drive (It's just that the virtual memory has not been cleared).

 

 

As for your loading "freezing" at 27%, this is pretty normal... FTX scenery contains a lot more data than default, so it takes longer to load... For me, I get a brief pause at 6%, then another at 27%. I just sit patiently and eventually it continues to load normally... If it takes more than 5 minutes, there might be a problem, but it can take a little while.

 

70 Gb should be more than enough space for your virtual memory... However, as a default, Windows uses a percentage of your drive... I would reccomend setting an actual maximum size for your virtual memory, then just make sure you always have at least that free on your C: drive... This post has a lot of good information about improving FSX via Windows, but explains the Virtual Memory and how to set it very well: 

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/58637-improving-fsx-via-windows/

 

Good luck!

[Ronski]

The file sizes do not change while FSX is operating, FSX is not extracting or unpacking or moving anything, it is simply loading the files stored on your hard drive.

 

Not actually correct,  (loading the files to where?)

There is quite a bit of activity when first loading a program, especially a new scenery like Orbx.  default textures and autogen is backed up and replaced, configeration files are updated and written to quite a few places on the C: drive, no matter where FSX is installed, eg.

C:Program data\microsoft\fsx

C:users\{your name}\appdata\local\microsoft\fsx

C:users\{your name}\appdata\local low\microsoft\fsx

and one we all know, \appdata\""roaming'' where the fsx.cfg file is.

 

Mostly small .cfg files, autogen .cfg, scenery caches etc. but,  fsx does require some overhead, ie, disk space to do this.

 

Robert reports only 70gig, seems more than enough, but, there are reserved spaces that cannot be written to by programs,  for example, recycle bin, which can be up to 84gig (or 10%) on a 1trb drive, system restore, and as Rob above mentioned, virtual memory, there are many others also, which is why it's recommended to leave a minimum of 15-20% free space on a drive, and having a fixed page file size.

windows will manage these reserved spaces for itself, leaving very little, which may prevent a program from loading.

 

This may not be the problem, but it's what I would look at first as Robert is not getting any error messages.

 

Ron.

[fltsimguy]

While I won't contribute to this technical discussion I would propose that you need to get you FSX off your C drive.

 

FSX is always best run on it's own separate drive.  Preferably internal and at least 7200 rpm. or even better a SSD if you can afford it.

 

And even if on it's own drive you should still leave C drive with plenty of space, ie 10-20% free.

 

I am not sure how big you fsx is at this time, but if you keep building it, like most of us, it will become huge. And, then it's always wise to have the complete fsx install backed up, cloned whatever to ensure you do not have to reinstall everything and to ensure you don't loose "stuff" that you will be challenged to find again.

 

I use a Norton backup approach which is set to automatically update my backup without me even worrying about it.

[David Cecchinato]

I agree with Brian, the C drive should be system only, to guarantee system stability at least. I have a multi disk configuration, with the system running smoothly on a ssd disk, programs like office or Simulator tools on a second standard drive and fsx with all sceneriesa airplanes and whatever installs inside the fsx folder on a third dedicated drive. 

 

Althought the ssd was added ultimately when I lately upgraded the pc to meet standard fsx settings (before it was enough to run fs9 at 100% settings but minimum fsx settings) my system always has been a multidisk configuration with one disk per sim (have had even xplane for a short period) and one disk per system only files.

 

David

[nkurun]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for all the useful information and suggestions. What actually resolved the problem for me in the end was having FSX generate a new fsx.cfg file. I do keep my approximately 300 GB FSX folder on another 1TB hybrid internal hard drive.

 

Robert.