I currently have FS2020 on a 500GB NVME drive and it’s filing up quick, now have 80GB available space. I’m looking at replacing with a 1TB NVME. I can see this topic has been covered a few times but with multiple options on how to transfer FS over.
The quickest and most sensible option I can see is just to use the windows settings/apps option and MOVE function. But I’ve seen so many over complicated ways of doing it.
Is it best to remove the existing drive to a NVME usb enclosure and put the new drive in its place in the PC while doing the transfer, or the opposite?
I assume you are talking about a M.2 drive.
And have only one M.2 slot.
Best to put the new 1 TB in the USB enclosure and clone your
existing 500GB to it.
Then replace the 500GB with the 1TB.
Note that you will need to "Initialize " the 1TB drive with Windows Disk Management.
And format it as GPT.
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Get a 2tb whilst you’re at it. Save the problem later on! 
(I have 2 x 4tb and don’t regret it lol)
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When you say’ ‘clone’, is this using 3rd party software?
I’ve heard that this can cause issues with FS2020. Seems easier just to ‘move’ with the windows settings.
I actually have 2 m.2 drives. One for the OS and the other one for FS (the one which is 500GB)
Im thinking of adding a sata ssd for everything else.
I might just do that, may as well go straight for a 2TB
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Are you on Xbox Store or Steam for MSFS? The Xbox Store version sets some unusual file permissions that other applications (and you, even as the PC’s owner) cannot set or change. This may be why some drive copy software can’t clone a drive with MSFS on it and have it still work on the new cloned drive.
The Steam version doesn’t so this, so a straight clone ought to work, especially since you have your OS on a different drive which you’re not changing. That said, I’ve never done this on an MSFS machine, nor have I tried the ‘move app’ function in Windows. The last time I migrated MSFS to a new machine I just re-installed from scratch then copied my community folder over onto the new machine.
Also +1 for a 2TB drive; NVMe prices per GB have dropped a long way since chip production ramped back up to normal levels.
I can’t remember what I used the last time that I cloned the
FS2020 NVMe M.2 drive.
Either Acronis, Partition Magic, or Samsung Data Migration.
But, it worked okay.
Also, a cloned drive is supposed to be an exact duplicate.
So, I would think those unusual file permissions were already there.
And, the app itself will place hidden and or restricted access files
that the app does not want users to mess with.
I found it easiest to back up your files and just do a clean install of Windows 11 than all the cloning stuff. But that’s just me.
Meanwhile, I add and remove contents on the fly to save some space…
2TB is a must.
My sim is installed on 2TB Samsung Evo 980 Pro.
there is nothing else. Just the sim and I have already 30-40% used.
In general I have 3 NVMe installed. One is used for DCS. Otherwise nothing else is installed on the PC to keep everything as clean as possible
I used “Samsung Data Migration” when I moved from my 500Gb NVME to a 2TB NVME.
Didn’t have any problems, I use the xbox store version of MSFS.
Did everything in your community folder and add ons work okay?
I think I had to log back in on one addon, maybe FS2Crew, but other than that, everything worked fine.
Generally the Samsung tool you download for free does an exact clone of the drive you are cloning and automatically expands the partition to use the extra space on the new drive.
It does however check that at least one of your drives is Samsung and sometimes has issues recognising the drive is Samsung if it is in the external device,
I think I read somewhere that the Samsung data migration software only works if it has an OS on the original. In my case I have a separate nvme with my os. I will give it a try later when my new drive arrives.
So a bit late posting but here’s my experience. I don’t recommend using the ‘move’ function in the windows apps settings. I tried this and left it for a few hours. Came back to see an error message saying a file hadn’t moved properly. Upon checking the drive it did in fact appear to have moved and it’s had gone on the old drive. However the sim didn’t start so it looks like the ‘move’ failed. So in the end I resorted to a complete reinstall which did seem to take forever.
Hi. I will make a new Windows 11 installation. On my Gigabyte B550 mainboard, i can use two NVME drives. I have a fast 1TB WD Black SN750 and a INTEL NVME with 512GB. Should i install W11 on the slower INTEL and MSFS on the faster WD or the opposite…?
Thanks!
W11 on the smaller Intel.
MSFS and everything related to it on the larger WD Black.
You didn’t specify which B550 motherboard. On my B550A-Pro, putting a drive in M2_2, makes the PCI_E3 slot unavailable. It’s not a problem, since I have no need to use that PCIe slot. Check your manual for a similar restriction.
O.K. I don’t have anything in the other PCI_E3 slot, so all works fine with my two NVMEs…
Thanks!
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