My C drive is getting close to max, 500GB SSD. I’m thinking about migrating to a 2 TB SSD. My question is can I uninstall MSFS 2020 and re-install without any issues. I have the store version and had quite a few difficulties when they first rolled out the program with getting it to run. Can I trust that the uninstall and re-install process to go without a hitch.
Has anyone done this already? I would love your input as to how the process went for you.
Last time I replaced my C Drive I spent a few weeks getting everything working again. With the current drive I have and the way they keep updating MSFS, it’s just a matter of time before I’m forced into an upgrade.
Thanks for any help or input. I greatly appreciate it.
Jim Kieffer
Greenville NC
If you replace it with a Samsung drive, you can use their drive clone software and I’ve never had an issue with it yet.
You clone the old drive to the new 2TB one, shut the machine down immediately after the clone completes. Swap the drives over and boot up. Very straightforward.
Backup your community and official folders to a safe drive. When you reinstall the sim you can browse to their location instead of downloading hundreds of gigs.
I bought a 256gb usb stick from Microcenter for $20. They has 512gb sticks for around 40$.
Would be a good time to check if your old drive is gpt partitioned before you think of cloning as the new one should be if you don’t want to be stuck with Windows10 forever. Also it isn’t possible to clone mbr to gpt without a lot of aggro.
Currently I am using a Samsung 500GB SSD as my C Drive, that should meet the requirements yes? I’m not sure if it is GPT or MBR.
Thank You for your response
Jim Kieffer
When you say clone the drive and shut down the machine immediately, that makes me a little nervous. Is there some significance to removing the drive immediately following clone completion?
Jim Kieffer
Thanks for the advice. I’m considering that as an option? Sometimes I like to do a complete swap with no data on the drive, helps get rid of all those files we collect yet never seem to use.
Jim Kieffer
Not as far as I know but I could be out of date … I’d say you’d have to convert the old drive to gpt before cloning the contents to a new gpt drive or it probably won’t boot. At least that’s how it was 6 or 7 years ago, in fact I don’t think a conversion without blanking the drive was possible then but apparently now there is software that can do it.
[quote="DensestSnail693, post:12, topic:480333] …
in fact I don’t think a conversion without blanking the drive was possible then but apparently now there is software that can do it.
[/quote]
Yes, in fact it’s a command built into Win10, IIRC, which I used recently to prep my Win10 drive for conversion to Win11. Very quick & smooth. Search 10=>11 prep procedures for instructions.
Purchased the Samsung 870 EVO 2TB SSD. Installed it as my primary drive using the Samsung Data Migration software. Changed out a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD with the new 2TB one. 500GB of data took about an hour to transfer on my system. Restarted the computer and changed the boot device to the new 2TB drive. Everything worked like a charm and no difficulties with MSFS 2020 on the new drive. So glad I bought the new drive, I only had about 50GB of space left on the old drive.
Regards
Jim Kieffer
Greenville NC
That’s great news. If you haven’t already, it’s worth running the Samsung Magician software and set Over Provisioning on the drive at the default 10%. This will reduce usable drive space by 10% but enhance the lifespan of the drive.