Moving/transferring MSFS from one HD to another

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
1

Greetings MSFS family. I am reaching out to the experts and knowledge base regarding moving MSFS from HD to another. My HD that was used when I initially loaded MSFS is getting full and running out of space. I am not experiencing any issues or degradation but the drive is filling up. I plan to move the MSFS program to a bigger and newer SSD. I think this is a straight forward process but want to make sure I do it correctly.
For those that have accomplished this already, please detail the steps to ensure this is done correctly.
In addition, what are the known issues and things I should be aware of.
The only addons I have is the PMDG 737 all models, FS2CREW and FSLT, and a few freeware airports.

Cheers!!

2

Hello there,
We ask that all members not use General Discussion for help, troubleshooting, bug reports, or advice questions. Your topic has been moved to Community Support.

3

I would uninstall the sim then reinstall it on the new drive, but copy the contents of your Community Folder somewhere safe before doing so, in case it gets deleted with the uninstall.
The 737 uses other folders outside the sim structure, so I would uninstall and reinstall those, or they may not work.
I don’t have FS2Crew, but you are probably better off uninstalling and reinstalling that to make sure it will work as well.
Copy the contents of your saved original Community Folder to the new CF location after the sim is installed. FSLTL will work fine that way, and your airports should as well.

Another thing you could do is just move the “Packages” folder, (Official - One Store, and Community Folders are in that) and then specify the new location in the UserCfg.Opt file.
They take up the vast amount of space and would save a reinstall.

4

I tried your suggestion (TheSevenflyer) in the past, it did not work, the sim would start but crash half way before the opening screen, somehow the sim software is tied to the drive which was originally installed. The new location in the UserCfg.Opt file is the same (C: Drive)I replaced the drive for a larger one, I had to reinstall the sim, which it worked better in the end, I did not installed a lot of content that I did not wanted, which the sim allows you to do now, lots of planes I did not care for, or I don’t fly, etc. It is a good opportunity to do a clean reinstall, I think the sim collects a lots of baggage with time, and keeps growing . I have a few items in the community folder, no scenery, and is already 253 Gb, more than twice the size of X-Plane with Ortho scenery and three times the amount of planes (OEM and purchased) It was done in under 2 hours.

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That’s an odd one, I have my “Packages” folder in a separate location which I specified in the Usercfg.Opt and it works great.
But, the main point is that your move worked fine for you, and even nicer, you were able to set your sim up the way you want it.
That’s always a good thing!!

Good Flights!

6

When you say you have your “Packages” in a separate location, are you referring to a different drive or different folder in the same drive? I have different types of drives to my availability, so I am very interested in this subject, I use MSFS in 2 different computers (not at the same time) Thanks

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For others contemplating this - if you have Milviz / Blackbirds products (non-marketplace purchases) I recommend to uninstall those aircraft prior to removing your sim.

You could orphan some files and run into troubles reinstalling if you don’t do so because it can’t find the old sim. It’s not so much the files in the community folder rather - you have removed / moved MSFS

I can’t speak for other companies installers but I’m sure it couldn’t hurt to remove add-ons prior and not risk screwing up your new install out of the gate. MSFS is a lot of downloading for a reinstall


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9

I have my packages on a different drive.
You need to move the Packages folder and its entire contents (Official - One Store, and Community Folders), and then in the usercfg.opt, specify the new location.
My sim is on “C” drive, but my packages are on “F”.

My usercfg.opt entry, which is entered at the bottom of the usercfg.opt file, is:
InstalledPackagesPath “F:\Packages”

10

This is all good stuff. Basically I have to do an uninstall and install on the new drive. I assume that all the setting will have to be reconfigured on the new drive. It took a little to get the setting perfect.

11

Thank you so much for the advise. I am dreading doing this as I got the Sim set up nice and working perfectly and I don’t want to run the risk of having to painstakingly go through another configuration but I will eventually run out of room on the old HD. But it might go easier than I think. Thanks again

Cheers

1 Like
12

So what exact step did you perform to get the SIm running corretcly?

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What’s worked for me for not having to re-download all of MSFS for the new install.

  1. Create a folder on your new SSD called “FlightSim” or similar
  2. Copy your existing Official and Community folders from your current install to that folder
  3. If MSFS if currently installed, uninstall it and reboot
  4. Install MSFS
  5. During the installation process, when it gets to the point where it downloads the rest of the sim, select your d:\Flightsim folder where you copied Official and Community instead of accepting the default location. Instead of re-downloading everything, it will re-use the content from your previous installation. (You might want to temporarily rename “Community” to avoid conflicts, and then name it back after installation.)
  6. Fly
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This Pc I performed the change is my personal machine with a lot of other programs and data that is important to me, MSFS is there for my use when I am at a different location, and only with a simple Joystick, the main MSFS is in another machine with all the hardware attach to it for serious flying.

First I clone the C:Drive to replace it with a larger drive, (I use Macrium Software) after checking the cloning was OK, I resize the partitions to use the full new drive, I use Partition Wizard, which is free for several light partition duties, otherwise you have to buy a license.

I try MSFS, i did not work, went to the Xbox, remove it from there, not from Windows Uninstall.
Reinstall it, it took 2 hours. ( I have 1Gbs fiber connection).
When I start it it was exactly the way I had before, I had removed several planes I am not interested like the Howard Hughes monstrosity, (this thing barely lift off the ground IRL , why would anybody wants to fly it, plus 5.6 Gb space) Orbit Hospital, etc.
I deleted all the caches, all the old settings were there.
By reading the notes of the last update, I removed lots of mods I had in the Community folder, including all the acft mods, lights mods, all the garmin mods (They are added by MSFS now), only left Navigraph and Honeycomb. I do not use any scenery, either free or bought, MSFS provide plenty of it.

Then I tried the Beechcraft King Air 350i, which a lot a people seems to have problems with.
I started dark and parked, got engines on, everything else working fine , took off went flying for one hour trying the PFD, MFD, etc, use the Autopilot briefly, I had no problems and landed.
My GPU during the flight was 60%, CPU never more than 10%, temp 65C and 81C respectively, frames 70
My settings are not very high, I use DLSS, I am very happy with the performance. I have had problems with the Autopilot in several other planes, the Cessnas mainly, they have a tendency to drift and fall, but with a little bit of coaching they recover, I have also found that these problems originates when you are using HDG and NAV.
My personal take on the Community folder is that is the source of many problems with the sim, after a while you lose track of what is in there, and keeping track of all the changes and updates to those mod is a full time job, after all I want to enjoy flying when I want to, and enjoy life in full. If you do not use acft mods you can see how good or bad the MSFS is. Right now a lots of planes are getting very good without mods.
This PC is a MODEL LEGION 7i 15MH05 16Gb with nVidia GeForce RTX 2070 with Max Q 8Gb . I do have 2 drives of 1Tb each now.
The other PC with the Honeycomb Hardware and MFG pedals, with 3 screens is exactly the same.

If I had to do the same replacement again I think I would follow the advice of TheSevenFlyer , you don’t want to write anything into the new drive if you are going to clone your drive, see Editer suggestion

15

All Good stuff. Looks like a clean install and uninstall. This all valuable info. I will proceed with the transfer soon. I will need a good few hours to do this. Thanks for all the responses.

16

I have just installed a 2TB M2, NVMe, PCie 4 SSD WD Black SN850X to replace a 1TB version of the same. Using Macrium Reflect and an M2 Enclosure I cloned the installed drive. It took 2hrs 18mins 27secs for roughly 650Gb of ‘data’. Removed the 1TB and replaced it with the 2TB - all working absolutely flawlessly. This is the second time that I have been through the process having previously cloned and replaced a SATA drive with the 1TB NVMe and that was painless as well. I have, of course, kept the 1TB drive to one side for a few days to ensure that all is well, after that I will reformat it and reinstall it as a D Drive.

17

My experience earlier last month. UPdating the SSDs on my MSFS Computer

Original
C: 500GB SSD
D: 1TB SSD

Using an exteranl 4 TB USB 3,0 drive

(1) Full Image Backup of both C & D drives to the 4 TB Drive, using Acronis Disk Image software, (running from C drive)

(2) Restore the C: backup to the original D drive SSD ( 1TB)

(2) Move the 1TB D Drive to the C drive slot, removing the original 500GB C drive (save).
New 1TB C dive now boots as the OS drive

(3) Put the new 2 TB dive into the D drive slot, and restore the backed up D drive (1TB) to the new 2TB D drive

This doubled the size of both my C drive and D drive, and gave me a backup of both original C & D drives on the 4TB external USB 3 Drive (Mechanical)

After this update, PC booted normal, and everything worked, including MSFS on the new C drive, and all the addons on the D drive.

Also, I have the old 500GB SSD on a USB 3,0 adapter, so it can be used for (Whatever), so it did not go to waste.

100% Success, and now ready for MORE Community Folder addons (using MSFS Addon Linker)

Now if only the sim worked as it “should” !!! but that is out of my control, and way above my Pay Grade.