Reinstalling to another hard drive?

User Support Hub Install, Performance & Graphics
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21

I can only speak for my experience when installing MSFS (Edit: MS Store Version) on my PC.

  • Prior to installing MSFS, I set the Game Install location in the Xbox App (Settings | Install Options) to D:\Microsoft Games:

    Xbox Settings
    Xbox Settings788×219 7.2 KB

  • Doing so caused a number of new folders to be created in the root of my D: Drive:
    D Drive Folders

  • During the initial install of MSFS, I set the install location to D:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator.

  • Post install, two new links appeared in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps:
    WindowsApps Links

  • C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_1.37.19.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe (1.98 GB) links to: D:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Content

  • C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.DigitalOwnership_1.0.1.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe links to: D:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator Digital Ownership\Content

  • The majority of the content (~ 344 GB) was installed to “D:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages\Official\OneStore”

I have had no issues with permissions problems, but also have not purchased any 3rd-party products that might expect MSFS to be installed on the C: Drive.

22

Have a question to tag onto this, I have just had the misfortune of steam deciding my “Official” folder is empty and redownloading it.

What I had:

MSFS Base installed on D drive (HDD)
I already have community and official installed on an E drive (SSD)
I wanted to move the MSFS base to my C drive (SSD)

I did this via steam thinking “well community and official are already elsewhere so that should just work”

After moving the steam installation to C drive, I run the sim, the E: location is still correct, and yet it wants to reinstall 160GB of base data. Having now checked the official folder, it also seems that it has wiped this clean?!

I seem to have installations all over the place now and Its actually quite bugging me, I have some parts of it in AppData, some parts in Steamapps/Steamlibrary/common, and some random aircraft (I imagine bad installs) on the C drive

23

I don’t have the Steam version, mine is MS Store.

But after moving, you need to go to the last line of the UserCfg.opt file and tell FS2020 where the “Installed Packages” are located.

See where this is presently pointing to and correct it based on your move.

24

Like an idiot, I tried using Settings->Apps->installedApps->MicrosoftFlightSimulator->move. It failed giving me code 0x80073d0b, “in case I need it” and tells me to “Try again later”. In addition, and this REALLY ticks me off, it left two undeletable folders on the 2nd drive, “WindowsApps” and “ProgramFiles”. What a complete MESS! Thank you Windows11 and MSFS!

It’s now August '24. Does anyone know what actually works? I’ve read all of the above and 10x more. Is this truly possible or what?

(Thanks for any help!)

25

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/windows-error-0x80073d0b/464ccde4-7303-47ff-b5f0-65e870a9a388

1 Like
26

Thank you for your input!

I had already tried this. It did not work. :frowning: The second idea, changing permissions, did not go the way he described. No permissions were changed.

Anyone know how I can remove the two undeletable folders, “WindowsApps” and ProgramFiles"?

BTW, MSFS was installed from the Store, not Xbox.

Thanks