Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - PC Upgrade

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | PC Upgrade - Flight Sim Transfer

DVA057
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM

Joined on June 02 2002
Events Century Club
Six Century Club
Online Quintuple Century Club
Everett 500 Club
50 State Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

"We Are ... Penn State!"
Atlanta, GA USA

672 legs, 1,338.4 hours
531 legs, 1,076.4 hours online
392 legs, 786.1 hours ACARS
190 legs, 406.3 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 28 2013 14:50 ET by Terry Eshenour

At long last I am upgrading my FS PC from WIN XP 32-bit to WIN 7 64-bit with corresponding CPU, RAM and VID upgrades. My current setup uses separate HD for System, FS9 and FSX. Can I physically transfer the FS9 and FSX HD to the new system and expect the flight sim applications to function? I have disk images of the System, FS9 and FSX on a fourth HD. Could I use the images to populate the HD if a new file system is needed to be compatible with WIN 7?

Looking forward to returning to the air following a long hiatus.

Terry

Terry Eshenour

Senior Captain, B777-200

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 29 2013 11:15 ET by Bryan Lee

Assuming you did the imaging correctly you should have no problem transferring your files over to your new OS. One thing I did think of though, any licenses you have for software may not work until you either re install the program or whatever the vendor wants so you can use it on a new PC. What imaging program are you using? I prefer and recommend Norton Ghost, but there are many solutions.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

DVA8088
Chief Pilot, B737-800
OLP, 737-ATP

Joined on December 11 2009
50 State Club
Globetrotter
US Coastal Club
US Mountaineer Club
Everett Quad-Millennium Club
Events Triple Century Club
Online Sixty Century Club
Six Million Mile Club
Seven Millennium Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"Real Time & Online. The only way to fly!!"
Corona, CA

7,254 legs, 15,027.6 hours
6,841 legs, 13,590.0 hours online
7,193 legs, 14,859.1 hours ACARS
372 legs, 926.8 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 29 2013 18:47 ET by Scott Simmons

Best recommendation is always a clean, new install of everything. The advantages will outweigh any disadvantages.
One of the biggest performance boosts that you can do is to use SSDs. I have my OS on a 120 GB drive and FSX on a 256 GB.

Scott Simmons (DVA8088)

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 10:46 ET by Terry Eshenour

Thanks for the replies.
I'm using Future Systems' Casper to mirror my HD's.
Scott I recall reading that SSD results in noticeable improvement for the OS, but not necessarily improvement for FSX. Have you experienced noticeable performance enhancements?
I agree about clean installs. I have stable working FSX and FS9 configured to suit my needs. Hoped that I wouldn't have to disturb something that works albeit slowly because of hardware limitations.

Regards,

Terry

Terry Eshenour

Senior Captain, B777-200

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 11:15 ET by Bryan Lee

The SSD will improve your loading times substantially, you will see no gain in performance in sim however.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 11:48 ET by Terry Eshenour

Thanks, that was my understanding. Good to know that I have all the bits and pieces on hand to assemble.

Terry Eshenour

Senior Captain, B777-200

DVA3931
Senior Captain, L-1011-100
OLP, COMM

Joined on January 19 2007
50 State Club
Tri-Jet Triumph
Million Mile Club
Online Quadruple Century Club
Flying Colonel
Globetrotter
Burbank 500 Club
Eurocap Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"De oppresso liber"
Surry, ME

1,882 legs, 3,806.7 hours
478 legs, 767.8 hours online
1,107 legs, 1,674.5 hours ACARS
55 legs, 114.8 hours event
195 legs dispatched, 134.4 hours

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 12:43 ET by Andrew Kaufmann

Terry as mentioned above - a clean install is prob your best bet - but can't hurt to try

Andrew Kaufmann (DVA3931)

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 16:47 ET by Bryan Lee

I say try the image, if you have as many add-ons as I do it will save you a whole day of installation lol. If it doesn't work then nothing really lost.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

DVA2370
Senior Captain, B737-800
OLP, COMM, VFRADV

Joined on May 26 2005
Online Triple Century Club
Commuter Conquest
Six Century Club
Stage 1 Prop Triple Century Club
50 State Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

Flagler Beach, FL USA

675 legs, 726.8 hours
319 legs, 311.4 hours online
179 legs, 146.1 hours ACARS
1 legs, 1.6 hours event
0 legs dispatched, 4.0 hours

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 17:19 ET by Scott Clarke

Terry: it might even improve your landings! (faster machine = faster response to recovery BEFORE you thump it!) drool

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 18:18 ET by Terry Eshenour

With the exception of Scott's dig, I appreciate your comments.

One final clarifying question, is there a file architecture difference between WIN XP 32-bit and WIN 7 64-bit? I was hoping that I could just physically transfer the flight sim hard drives from old to new. I understand that the OS will be a fresh install.

Regards,

Terry

Terry Eshenour

Senior Captain, B777-200

DVA3520
First Officer, B747-400

Joined on September 07 2006
Double Century Club

"Feelin' good is good enough!"
Riverside, CA

280 legs, 834.6 hours
120 legs, 384.6 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on August 30 2013 18:38 ET by Bryan Lee

Hmm, the file architecture is essentially the same, you should have no problem plugging in the old data drives to the new computer. Windows will simply read from them and do what is asked, should not be an issue. Just make sure that the drives do not contain an old OS, unless you intend on having the option to dual boot your shiny new PC into Windows XP lol.

Bryan Lee

First Officer, B747-400

DVA5857
Captain, B767-300

Joined on April 23 2008
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Stage 1 Jet Century Club
Quincentenary Club
Online Quintuple Century Club

Northeastern United States

515 legs, 1,054.0 hours
502 legs, 1,022.2 hours online
513 legs, 1,050.8 hours ACARS
15 legs, 33.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on September 27 2013 23:22 ET by Chuck Angle

I had a new system built about 6 months ago with a solid state hard drive similar to the one you described. I did a completely new install but installed all the components (to include the payware and freeware scenery files. My old system took 33 seconds to start FSX. The new solid state drive takes about 3 seconds! Loading FSInn with 4089 multiplayer acft used to take 28 seconds, now its 7 seconds.

Chuck Angle

Captain, B767-300

DVA3196
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP, COMM

Joined on June 03 2006
Online Double Century Club
50 State Club
Six Century Club

"pitchpowertrim.com"
Anderson, MO

619 legs, 1,093.4 hours
292 legs, 503.1 hours online
580 legs, 1,026.5 hours ACARS
89 legs, 191.0 hours event
236 legs dispatched, 110.1 hours

Posted onPost created on September 28 2013 08:21 ET by Michael Brown

Terry Eshenour wrote:

With the exception of Scott's dig, I appreciate your comments.

One final clarifying question, is there a file architecture difference between WIN XP 32-bit and WIN 7 64-bit? I was hoping that I could just physically transfer the flight sim hard drives from old to new. I understand that the OS will be a fresh install.

Regards,

Terry

I recall that XP supports FAT32 & NTFS. Assuming your old XP machine was NTFS you'll be ok.

The problem I see in all of this is the new system's registry. Perhaps the Registry Fix tool DVA has could be of use.

Michael Brown (DVA3196)

Posted onPost created on September 28 2013 09:35 ET by Terry Eshenour

Thanks Michael for the suggestion about our registry fix tool.

Terry Eshenour

Senior Captain, B777-200

DVA9571
Senior Captain, B767-300

Joined on March 10 2011
Everett 500 Club
Online Quintuple Century Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary
Six Century Club

Miami, FL USA

612 legs, 2,333.0 hours
590 legs, 2,242.9 hours online
602 legs, 2,307.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on September 28 2013 14:44 ET by Bob Klemm

I had to install FS9 in a non-standard directory for it to work with Win7. I just put it in C/FS, and all is good. There are problems with a few addon sceneries vs 64 bit, but if you visit the vendor's website, there is usually a simple fix. There are a few other little annoyances, but the easy fixes can be found via Google, etc. It's well worth the upgrade - I added a new CPU and MoBo, and added RAM. I can run FS9 with everything maxed out. It's great. FSX still has to be tweaked - as usual. wink

Bob Klemm

Senior Captain, B767-300

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