Hello
My 500gb drive is starting to get full. I need to replace it with a 1TB one. Is there a way I can copy all MSF2020 while keeping the settings without having to download everything from scratch?
1 Like
I literally after researching this same question did the following after being in the same situation. My âCâ drive is mostly delegated to all the constantly bloating MS software programs and all, my designated âGâ drive is 2TB SSD and is my designed to be my gaming drive however, with RDR2 and MSFS and others I found myself slowly creeping out of space, especially with future growth for the flight sim and tons of adding that are available. So I bought a 1TB SSD and now that is designated strictly for MSFS alone - nothing else. Okay, so how to move MSFS over to a new drive?
Found where my main MSFS2020 folder was located (this contains the Community and Official folders) right clicked cut (NOT copy as using CUT is much faster as itâs transferring files, not copying them) on the main folder called âMSFS2020â which contains the two files mentioned above and then located the new drive where I wished to place them on and right clicked paste. Within less than an hour and a half or thereabouts everything was transferred over (scariest part over!).
Then, find your UsrCfg.opt file (for Steam installations it should be here: C:\Users[user]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator)
- Edit the UsrCfg.opt file with a text editor (Notepad will work - you can right click the file and choose âNotepadâ to open it with)
- Go to the very bottom of the file
- Edit the line InstalledPackagesPath âG:\FlightSimâ to point to the NEW folder location.
- Donât forget to âSaveâ the UsrCfg.opt file
The process also works the same for the Microsoft Store version if bought directly from there as well - which is the version I have.
The last step is I went into my start menu and deleted the shortcut (as it was now invalid) and reinstalled the new shortcut to its location.
Iâve ran it without fault several times since then, have done major update and all runs it it did before without any changes to my hardware or software configurations. Itâs actually easier than one may think. Good luck!
2 Likes
i in same situation, and looks like till pc upgrade iâll may be got some new drive, and for sure will not move addons from this one⊠you can use addon manager or any other simple symlinks makers and use addons from any place of the pc or even from the network
Thanks, I wanted to start from a new windows installation on a 1TB disk. So in the meantime I could make a backup of ms2020 on a second disk, then dump everything on the 1TB one without losing even the saved settings?
1 Like
yes, you can save all you got, but best way is have more than one drive, c only for system and small soft, d only for games and massive or and portable software, e only for simulator, f only for media, for simulator and system nvme for games ssd, for media hdd, if your /community/ will at not system disk you will not need to do any manipulations except add drive with community, you can found other msfs dir on system drive and coppy them, in that way you will not need reinstall or even change options, so if you will got drive with your community and copy of all msfs system folders, you will got all you need, then install addon manager or use another symlink maker for add new paths in new drive to community, symlink donât eat much disk place so your old disk can stay addonâs haven for new rig msfs
1 Like
In theory so long as each time you follow each step you could transfer MSFS back and forth all day long til your heartâs content and to different drives all day long with no changes taking place as no software is being altered in the process, youâre duplicating it all.
Thereâs no âset rulesâ except for WIndows liking to be on your âCâ drive as an established protocol. You could name your new drive whatever you want. Mine is actually labeled as designated âHâ drive and named MSFS2020. Could have designated it as my âXâ drive for that matter and named it Breakingwind for that matter but yes, I see what youâre trying to do.
Yes, I understand that it is best to differentiate the discs. But I wanted to take advantage of the NVME speed which for MS2020 is important for loading game and my motherboard only has one slot and I didnât want to add Sata adapters. What do you recommend?
1 Like
Take a tip from me, to avoid occasional scenery freezes donât have your rolling or manual caches on the same drive as your packages.
3 Likes
same as before:) youâll lost nothing at separate system, i mean it - 0. sata isnât evil, for all games exclude simulators with heavy data, sata ssd is all you need, for media hdd is all you need, but for system and simulator nvme is good choice, but even for them is not necessary, but i think 1minute loading better than 3-5minute and 5 minutes much better than 10-15, performance will same if not count some freezes in game, when with nvme that freezes will 0.5sec and ssd 2sec.
today you can found 18tb very good hdd and 5tb sata ssd, but nvme only 2tb, you can take at hdd everything you need as movies, pictures, and archives. just thinking how fast your 1tb disk will filled, my was after year, only by msfs addons⊠for more accurate recommendation i have to know what do you will use on pc, if only for msfs, so you will not need any sata, if you want save something like movies you will need hdd, if you need play games you will need sata ssd, just because sata ssd really enough for them, as hdd really enough for save archives and media, and you can save place for msfs, i will upgrade pc same time when next rtx generation will out for take 4090 or 4080ti whatever will first out, and have no idea what drives i will take, because donât know what kind of them will by capacity, but for now i think i have some space on c:\ and f:\ and d:\ and may be there enough till upgrade, i very badly donât want to buy something for pc right now, but if you ask me recommendation, whatever you want to buy right now take biggest samsung nvme what you will found is 2tb afaik, then install addon manager and create separated folders on 2tb disk then create symbolic links send it to community disk you got right now, just for add addons from new nvme to your 500gb nvme by symbolic links, one disk 5 disks no matter it will have same performance, and sata disks in the system will not change it if system, community folder and msfs kernel will on the nvme or on separated nvmes
exactly. same about system, system in any way have to be at another drive than used soft
I have only the packages and recordings on D: everything else on my NVme4 C: drive and I have great performance and literally zero issues. Mind you nothing else is running except Windows 11 and OBS while I am using MSFS.
but when your system operate something and same time work with soft date if this is dynamic games like msfs better be working with not same source, if you have literally zero issues with msfs, thatâs mean you donât remember about issues or donât flight more than 40 minutes or donât use this game more than month or you unbelievable lucky 
about performance, i donât think is matter from one or two nvme use soft, but if system read date from same drive where system live, i think is not very good, but after your âliterally zero issuesâ i donât sure any more as before
I had the game installed on a 1TB HDD labelled âD:/Dataâ
When I replaced it with a 2TB SSD what I did was copy the entire drive to the new one, re-named the old one to E:/HDDâ and gave the new one the name âD:/Dataâ.
Fired up the sim and it did not see any difference.
1 Like
i think for soft label hasnât matter, if they read from d:\ they stay looking on d:, label is thing only for user afaik, any way topicâs author will upgrade system, so will need reinstall msfs in any way, and want do this maximum comfortable as i get it
If your running steam, all you have to do is select either manage or properties dont remeber which one, and then tell it to move game to another steamlibrary. Ive done it a couple of times and it worked just fine. And you dont have to edit any usercfg.opt files, steam does it auto magicaly.
2 Likes
Very easyâŠ
Copy or clone contents to new drive and give your new drive the letter (like âDâ) or whatever letter your full drive had.
If I have a third drive in use it has to share PCIe lanes with my D: drive so if anything it would only slow my system down. Honestly my two NVme PC has all the resources it needs and my CL14@3600MHz ram never misses a beat even on long flights (although I pretty much only hand fly GA or gliders VFR, rarely do I use AP for more than heading and altitude).
how sata disk can slowdown system if everything working from nvme? i think you donât right, sata container, that donât have any data, system will write due flight, will change nothing⊠o, i have similar ram 15-15-15-35@3600 1.35(6)v i think we have same vendor of ram btw 
As I understood your post you were saying keep both the packages and the caches off the system drive but also not on the same one. And I was just pointing out that on most M.2 motherboards the 2nd NVme shares PCIe lanes with other PCIe, PCI or SATA drives or cards. SATA uses the same busses.
ah, yes, i heard about that, i check that, as i remember in my case msi z390 ace both use pci4 or 3 or whatever have to:) i did it very long time ago i sure same year i get it november 2018⊠i think all data pc read have to be on nvme if that data need for system and for stuff like msfs, all data for normal games can be at sata ssd and all media data can be on hdd, soft itself can be on hdd too btw:) but everything like virtual memory, web cache, simulator content, gpu cache every thing that have to be read and write fast have to be on nvme and for sure use pci-e whatever generation it is, everything else is about choice of vendor and priority, if need space for more games have to be big sata ssd, if need space for movie theater high quality films big hdd