I’ve been reading quite a few threads in which people report losing settings, or needing to reload the sim (and even Windows) to fix some problem that just ‘cropped up.’
We spend money on our CPU, GPU, RAM, etc., as well as on aircraft, scenery, and other things that make our sim more enjoyable. Why not spend a little more on another drive or two and backup software like Macrium Reflect? I’d guess most have SATA ports available, and space in the computer case for the drives. External USB 3.0 drives are another option if space is at a premium.
It’s really not difficult to set up a backup schedule. I backup my system drive, along with the drives that contain the sim and another that has all my ZIP files, mod files, and other miscellaneous files. Macrium does a full backup of each one weekly, along with daily incremental backups, based on the schedule I set up. Once set, the schedule runs automatically in the background with no further input from me.
I’ve needed to restore once, and the process was completely painless.
There is a bit of a learning curve and some setup required to ensure that the backup and restore operations work easily and reliably. But we have to learn a lot of things when we enter the world of PC simming. Why not one more thing that can alleviate so much time, effort, and frustration?
Backing up your data has always been the accepted wisdom, since long before MSFS even existed. It doesn’t have to be automatic (like Macrium), as long as you actually do it.
All you need to do is a local backup of your settings and controls assignments before a SU is released and again once you applied the new patch or change any relevant settings you may want to save (e.g: adding a new joystick). The rest is always available for downloading it again or is regenerated by game if it´s missing.
The problem of automatic scheduled backups is that you need to be sure they are done always while game is not running as some setting files are updated locally only after exiting game. That´s why I prefer to copy files manually once per patch.
Indeed the game´s cloud saving feature itself is enough to have a scheduled backup of settings. I keep my local backup just in case you face sync problems or settings are lost in case of errors.
All well and good until you have a problem with Windows. How many times have you seen, “I had to reinstall the sim, and reinstall Windows.”
Sure, you can manually back up (some) important files. You can even automate it if you want to use Powershell and Task Scheduler. I prefer to avoid that. Automated incremental backups are the easiest and best way. Mine run at 6:00am every day.
“Accepted wisdom” is one thing. Actually using that wisdom is another thing.
I’m simply making a suggestion to easily automate a useful task for those who haven’t considered it.
My company got hit with ransomware a while ago. Thank God I had redundant NAS backups, along with an offsite copy of our on-premise server, none of which the malware touched.
They are stored on my SAN (Yes, I have a full SAN and ESXi Farm in my house) at home and easy to revert back to any state I require.
I also have an AMAZON S3 FTP that my Community Folder (~500GB) is backed up to (in categories with build number files) as things get updated, they are tracked on a spreadsheet and then backed up to the FTP.
I use Acronis to back up all my Enterprise workstations. It’s very comprehensive, but (at least with that version) pretty hard to set up compared to Macrium.
I agree with your assessment of Macrium, great software. I’ve used it to transfer data onto new drives as well as create disk image copies. Most of my personal files are in the cloud now via OneDrive so all I back up now is mods and game settings, as well as lay about My Documents files and other bits and pieces. I do this on a monthly basis or whenever I’ve made a major change.
I’ve also got 2 external HDDs as “The Last Line of Defence.”
That’s fine, and you’re perfectly correct in what you say. But people (no-one more than me) have been saying that for decades now, and frankly, sometimes I think you may as well talk to a brick wall.
I also use Acronis Image for backing up the Windows OS on C: & MSFS on D:.
The number of folks who will take our advice may be small, but if it only prevents one user from having to reinstall MSFS over a really slow internet connection, it’s worth it (speaking as one who’s initial install of MSFS took ~ 3 days to complete).
I do not trust the cloud to store any critical data. It assumes that when you need that data that you:
a) can connect to the cloud, and
b) can be authenticated in order to access your files.
I was impacted by b) some years ago & was never able to access my MS mailbox again.
As we are seeing with the current issue with Gaming Services, authentication is not always guaranteed.
Once bitten, twice shy.
Create a local backup!
This is an amazing suggestion if, as you say, even one person takes the advice. Even though I am computer-literate enough to a) build PCs from scratch and b) help family and friends with problems.
I am still wondering, though, concerning Macrium…
Are there examples of specific procedures I can use? I am still somewhat confused still about when to use images, full backups, and incremental backs and what specific hardware I will need to get based on my environment, and
If I set up a process with Macrium, would I still be able to access Restore functionality if Macrium goes out of business?
I just used the free version and about the only thing you can’t do is back up a drive on one PC and restore it to another. Even if your free trial has expired and you have back ups they will allow you to do a restore on the same PC.
Edit: I liked Macrium so I purchased a copy along with a used 10TB UltraStar HDD (see here) from Amazon. These are server drives that have been used by a datacenter for 5 years and then retired. They have a mean time between failure of about a 160 years so they are not only cheap and huge but also rock solid. I only use it for back ups of my 4TB main drive. I can do a full Windows/MSFS recovery in less than 10 minutes.
This appeals to me. However, I do not know where to find the settings and control configurations to back up! I am on PC, Store version. In another thread the path C:\Users[User_Name]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\SystemAppData\ was stated as the location. This folder contains two folders with a bunch of unidentifiable files.
So two questions:
Is the folder I listed the correct one?
If so: is keeping a current copy of the contents and restoring that to the same location sufficient to restore your settings and peripheral configs if required?
