neforus51 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I am looking into adding a second solid state drive to accommodate future FTX releases. What I don't know is how it works with two drives if all of my FTX files are on one. If I add a drive and start installing FTX regions on the new drive, will it know to communicate with the other drive where all the main FTX files are? If someone could briefly explain how it will work, I would appreciate it. I have a fairly modern motherboard with several SATA ports. Thanks again for the help in understanding how this will work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twsimfan Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I am probably the wrong person to start answering this but I think it would be okay. My C: drive is a 512GB SSD which has W7, FSX, all of my ORBX FTX stuff, aeroflyFS, and some other things that I want to load and run very fast. My D: drive is a 1TB unit that I have most of my other flight or driving sims and some other games. D: has some freeware sceneries and airports for FSX as well. I also have a 3TB E: drive that has a lot of backup information plus MSE 2.0 Colorado & Hawaii. FSX doesn't seem to care how many drives it has to go to find the scenery. But I am only guessing that you could split FTX to multiple drives. Hopefully somebody who knows what they are talking about will come along soon. Regards, Tom Wunder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 If you wish to do this, by far the best way is to install the files into the default FSX or P3D\ORBX folder. Then copy the folder to your preferred location and delete the original from the default location Finally, use a symbolic link or junction to add the link to the folder back into the default FSX or P3D folder. In this way, the files will be in a non-default location, as you wish to achieve but as the link is treated in the same way as the files, FSX or P3D and most importantly FTX Central will operate exactly as before. This link will provide the necessary software and a guide on what to do. http://schinagl.priv...nkshellext.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrishunt Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I've done this using the junction method and confirm that it works well. Once a junction is established future installations into the relevant folder store the files in the source folder, e.g. the folder in a location other than that used for your sim. One minor point on establishing the link you'll need both source and the link-from folders open at the same time otherwise the option to create the junction isn't available (at least from my experience in W7 64bit). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neforus51 Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 Geez, I was hoping this was going to be easier. The first problem that I am going to run into is that I cannot... "install the files into the default FSX or ORBX folder" because I am down to about 2 gigs of space left on my C drive. FTX Northern CA was like 5 or 6 gigs in size. So it will not be possible to first install further FTX regions to the default FSX folder first because there is no space left. Could I start copying the ORBX files that are currently in there to the new drive? Like what if I copied the ORBX folder itself to the second (or new) drive and then tried to add a symbolic link or junction so it is linked back to the default FSX folder where it originally came from? I looked at the link you provided Nick and it looks confusing as heck. I am unfortunately not very computer savy so I quickly became confused while reading the instructions. Is this "symbolic link" the only way to get furture FTX installs to go to the new drive and be usable? I wish there was the option that is available sometimes when installing a new program that allows you to put it where you want the new program to be installed, but I guess that doesn't work in this sense because a new program is not being installed, just more data that needs to go into an existing folder. So will I be able to move the ORBX folder to the new drive and create the link? Would future add-ons then go to that ORBX folder on the new drive, or would they go to the default location (which then would require me to copy then to the new drive)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 Yes, you can move the ORBX installation now, in fact it seems you will have to in order to make space to install any more. You might also consider moving other software. Is your C drive small or is it large but full of other software? Link Shell Extension Installation. You may need these files http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/B/4/8B42259F-5D70-43F4-AC2E-4B208FD8D66A/vcredist_x64.EXE Download and run the .exe file, as an administrator.. This one for Windows 64 bit http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/HardLinkShellExt_X64.exe Download and run the .exe file as an administrator. Once installed, you will have two more options in the menu which appears when you right click on a file or folder. I cannot however improve on the guidance on how to create and use links which you will find towards the bottom of the linked page in both words and screen shots. Once you have made the link(s), any further ORBX installations will be installed via the link to your second drive and not use any more space on your C drive. Not wishing to cloud the issue, ORBX file are tied only to being installed into the FSX folder. They will do this wherever you have installed FSX which can be installed to any drive. You do therefore have a choice but it must be made before installing FSX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronski Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 If your not comfortable with creating links, Why not simply 'extend' your FTX drive and add the new drive with same drive letter. Windows will see both drives as one, with the double capacity. It used to be called 'mounting a volume' in XP. Now called, 'extending a volume' easily done in disk management. Lots of tutorials out there on extending volumes, and you can specify how much space to use on the new drive, or all of it. here's one to extend system volume, similar to extend any drive ; http://www.wikihow.com/Extend-System-Volume Google is your friend here if you decide you may want to do this. regards, Ron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neforus51 Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Thanks Nick and Ronski for the ideas. I'm kicking myself right now because I thought I would not need more than 110 gigs of space. I don't play much pc games, but the FTX world is getting bigger and bigger. I'll check out the link to system volume, and if it is as easy as you say, then that may be my ticket. Thanks Nick for the extra info on symbolic links. If I cant extend the system volume, I'll try my luck with symbolic links. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronski Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 It really is quite easy to extend, plug in the new drive. start computer. It should be recognised in computer management as disk 1, unallocated space. ( check it's there, and reads unallocated space ) C: drive should be disk 0. ( boot, healthy etc.) right click on C: drive ( disk 0 ) and start wizard to extend, select the disk 1 to extend to, and choose how much space to use. windows will just see it as C: drive. This can be done with as many drives as your system can use, so you can add more drives later. Ron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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