Do you have FSX 'Insurance'?!?

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

For those that have FSX running like a charm, please do the following and have worry-free FSX'ing...1. DEFRAG your computer system.2. Make an IMAGE back-up of your drive(s). This is easy if you have W7 Premium or Ultimate. Go to BACK UP and select on the top left of the page; Create a System Image.3. Run REGEDIT and then EXPORT a REGISTRY image file to your document folder. Name it REGISTRY BACKUP Image. Drag a copy of this file over to your ARCHIVE/BACK-UP hard drive.**** Make sure your DRIVE IMAGE BACKUP and a copy of your REGISTRY BACKUP Image is on a drive such as a WD MY BOOK, which you then only run when needed to access the drive for archive purposes. Never keep this drive always active and plugged into the mains. This will protect you from possible drive death due to power spikes and other death-dealing episodes. When you have added significant software, add-on's, etc to your O.S. drive, this would be a good time to make another session of creating a FULL COMPUTER IMAGE onto your MY BOOK drive.Creating an Image of your entire computer allows you to bring back the system JUST AS IT WAS when the image was created!!! You will in effect have the same system you had before the episode that caused you to need to bring it back, such as adding a virus, screwing up software install/uninstall or the death of your O.S. drive. If you need to replace the drive, or just want to bring back your BACK UP IMAGE to your present drive after a boo-boo, ...you would then run the REPAIR OPTION (read your O.S. Owner's Manual) of your O.S. and use the IMAGE OPTION under REPAIR to bring back the System from your WD My Book. In an hour or so...you would have the FULL system and software you had before the crash, etc. Trust me...you will be grateful for this!!!!Congratulations...you now have a full Computer and Flight Simulation Insurance Policy! Boy...are you clever and smart for this!!! :(

[duckbilled 310]

Funny you mentioned this. I just made a copy of my FSX installation to me NAS drive. I keep in in the same folder will all of my payware installers. I realize this is not the same as whet you are suggesting.I would make an image of my system on my NAS drive but it is always connected to my system. Are you suggesting that I should get an additional external HD, make an image and store it away for safe keeping?My system consists of 3 internal hard drives - 1tb for OS, 300GB for FSX, 150GB for ArcGIS and other stuff. Let's say my c drive goes kaput, what would be the process of restoring my system after installing/formatting the new HD (assuming I followed your advice)?I'm just trying to decide if it would save enough time and headaches to warrant the additional expense. I would do it if it was a couple clicks to get my system back in order with all payware titles operating normally.

[WallysWorld 4]

Been using Norton Ghost with an external hard drive for the last two years to back up my system. It's saved my butt a couple of times when I've deleted something that I wanted back weeks later. I also used the backup of my old PC to move files to my new PC including GB's of addons for FS2004.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Funny you mentioned this. I just made a copy of my FSX installation to me NAS drive. I keep in in the same folder will all of my payware installers. I realize this is not the same as whet you are suggesting.I would make an image of my system on my NAS drive but it is always connected to my system. Are you suggesting that I should get an additional external HD, make an image and store it away for safe keeping?My system consists of 3 internal hard drives - 1tb for OS, 300GB for FSX, 150GB for ArcGIS and other stuff. Let's say my c drive goes kaput, what would be the process of restoring my system after installing/formatting the new HD (assuming I followed your advice)?I'm just trying to decide if it would save enough time and headaches to warrant the additional expense. I would do it if it was a couple clicks to get my system back in order with all payware titles operating normally.

----------------------------YES! YES!...and YES! You can get a USB-driven 1GB My Book for peanuts today. I do suggest though that you buy a My Book with ESATA capabilities. Use it ONLY as I do for your Archive Drive. Send all your payware, add-on's, licence keys, ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING you don't want to lose or have to hunt for. Keep a SYSTEM IMAGE on this drive ONLY...as well as a REGISTRY EXPORT file. After you do this...dismount the drive and then turn it off, also...pull out the plug from the wall. You are now TOTALLY protected from any catastrophe. I have brought back an image at least four times already, from needing to...and it is amazing to once more have everything working like a charm a half, to an hour later!Duckbill, it would be faster to just read about RESTORING your O.S. (or drive contents) from your O.S. online help, or just GOOGLE 'how to bring back SYSTEM IMAGE from back-up'. The search will tell you what the process is and it is very, very easy. Make sure you use an USB 2 connection for the System Restore, but you can use an ESATA connection for creating a back-up and all other in/out communication with your My Book. Of course, you need a My Book that HAS the ESATA connection option. The ESATA ( External SATA) connection gives you input and output read and write speed equal to any SATA internal drive. Using this connection cuts by half the time needed to write a full system image back up over USB 2, to your My Book. The reason you need to use the normal USB-2 connection if you want to bring back an image, is that during the polling of your external drive by the O.S. or the EMERGENCY REPAIR DISC you created...right?!?!?....it only sees and polls the USB hub in the BIOS run-up. ESATA drives (the ESATA port on the My Book) are 'not seen' by the BIOS at the point where you would then be allowed to bring up the REPAIR OPTIONS PAGE(an F-key request). The normal USB-2 port on the My Book is seen and logged in for use. So not to confuse you...buy a My Book with the ESATA connection (you need to also buy an ESATA cable at the time of purchase) for lighting fast writes to the drive, and then remember to just remove the ESATA cable BEFORE you fire up the drive and your computer (for the purpose of SYSTEM IMAGE RESTORE), and plug in the USB 2 cable that comes with the drive. Restore your system...and then shut down and un-power your 'My Book'. Pull out the A.C. cord, swap the USB 2 for the ESATA cable...and run as normal in ESATA mode for any archiving activities and general use. *** POST EDIT: Your computer also has to have an ESATA port for you to use an ESATA external hard drive. If you do not have this port on the back of your computer, then just buy a My Book with the normal and included USB-2 port.Cheers,Mitch'er

[Guest]

----------------------------YES! YES!...and YES! You can get a USB-driven 1GB My Book for peanuts today.

Better spend some more peanuts on a 1 TB drive instead of a 1 GB drive.... :( :( :(I also have a backup drive (630 Gb btw which is large enough for me) and I also keep it disconnected from the computer and unplugged from the wall. Imho it's indeed not clever to keep your backup drive connected or plugged in (even when it's not connected).However, I don't have an image of my OS drive with FSX: I like to reinstall the OS and FSX once or twice a year. It doesn't take too much time to do, also because I don't use thousands of addons and also because I have the entire procedure written down, tailored to my personal needs. :( I like to keep my system clean. I actually like to reinstall everything B) , more than restoring an older image with older drivers and stuff I might not want anymore (there ALWAYS is stuff I don't like anymore after a while). Still, if you hate installing an OS or if you have 40 Gb of addons, the given advice is very good!!! (I do make regular backups of my data, of course...) Anyway, when my computer crashes completely (doesn't happen too often) I don't really mind...

[Paul_Yorks 97]

How might this work if your OS is on C:, with FSX on D:?I have my games on D:/E:Is it necessary to backup the registry, if you're imaging the OS drive? Don't you just copy the C: drive image back, which will contain the registry?Would be interested to hear more. I backup my payware/large file to ext HDD regularly, but like the idea of avoiding 100GB+ of reinstall.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I thought about backing mine up once, but if my HD crashes that will give me a good excuse to move to Win7 64 bit anyways. I just backup all my payware downloads, custom AI files, and all my mipped textures for AI and scenery so I dont have to do it again.

[yellowjack 28]

I use Norton Ghost had it since #9 and I am now on #15 which works with Win7 64bit.I back all my working partitions up to a specific onboard drive then at the beginning of each month I backup all my working partitions up to an external Esata drive which I put away in a remote location after the backup is complete.Belt and braces, sure, but I had my first microcomputer in 1978/79 and have been on that rocky road since learning the hard way. Any user that doesn't take regular images of their system and important data, like FSX, is playing Russian Roulette.Remember Murphy's Law "If it can happen, it will and at the most inopportune time" USB drives are very slow for doing backup jobs external Sata connection is much faster.

[jwenham 1]

using Acronis true image on my system and its saved my ars 2x now.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Better spend some more peanuts on a 1 TB drive instead of a 1 GB drive.... :( :( :( I also have a backup drive (630 Gb btw which is large enough for me) and I also keep it disconnected from the computer and unplugged from the wall. Imho it's indeed not clever to keep your backup drive connected or plugged in (even when it's not connected).However, I don't have an image of my OS drive with FSX: I like to reinstall the OS and FSX once or twice a year. It doesn't take too much time to do, also because I don't use thousands of addons and also because I have the entire procedure written down, tailored to my personal needs. B) I like to keep my system clean. I actually like to reinstall everything B) , more than restoring an older image with older drivers and stuff I might not want anymore (there ALWAYS is stuff I don't like anymore after a while). Still, if you hate installing an OS or if you have 40 Gb of addons, the given advice is very good!!! (I do make regular backups of my data, of course...) Anyway, when my computer crashes completely (doesn't happen too often) I don't really mind...

-------------------------------------------------Yes..I did mean a 1 TB My Book. Thanks for catching that! I hope that most must have thought that I meant a 1 TB or greater...Mitch

How might this work if your OS is on C:, with FSX on D:?I have my games on D:/E:Is it necessary to backup the registry, if you're imaging the OS drive? Don't you just copy the C: drive image back, which will contain the registry?Would be interested to hear more. I backup my payware/large file to ext HDD regularly, but like the idea of avoiding 100GB+ of reinstall.

-----------------------------------------Paul, when you do a system image, ALL of your hard drives connected to 'form' the system will be created on the Image. You can specify this when setting up the IMAGE mask. When you bring it all back...all the hard drives will have been restored as well as the REGISTRY that knows where everything is... It is really easy. The O.S. does all the work!!! Again, you can specify what hard drives shall be included in the 1 IMAGE Back up.BTW, that was a 1TB instead of my 1 GB typo for the My Book!Mitch

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

using Acronis true image on my system and its saved my ars 2x now.

Mine at least 4 times! You screw around with FSX's folder...you install and uninstall, you make a mess of a .cfg file, you download something nasty that sets up a ROOT SYSTEM on your rig....any or all of the above.Just bring back that last PRISTINE image...and all your screw-ups go simply....ahhh.....away......For those that like to bring back their O.S. every few months (I don't know why..but whatever....) then simply format, reload your O.S., make an image of that, and then you do NOT have to keep spending hours bringing back a new rendition. You merely bring back the Image, and in 20 or so minutes, you have your O.S. with nothing else on your system, or in the Registry. That would be the painless and fastest way to just have a new 'copy' of your O.S.Just a suggestion.MitchTYPO: To all, my original post stated the size of the suggested My Book as 1GB. Should have been typed 1TB. Sorry for the error.Mitch

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

How might this work if your OS is on C:, with FSX on D:?I have my games on D:/E:Is it necessary to backup the registry, if you're imaging the OS drive? Don't you just copy the C: drive image back, which will contain the registry?Would be interested to hear more. I backup my payware/large file to ext HDD regularly, but like the idea of avoiding 100GB+ of reinstall.

--------------------------------------------Paul, you are correct about that the IMGAGE would also have the Registry as well. The reason that I suggest that you also create a stand-alone Registry back up..is if you just need to correct an error in your current Registry. You only need to enter REGEDIT, then use the IMPORT function and point it to that back-up. Presto...you now have a proper and uncorrupted registry once more without the need to do a total bring-back of the Image. You'd use this if for instance, you just installed a program two hours ago...used it...and didn't like what it did to your system, or the program itself. You then uninstall it...and bring back the two hour old Registry, and you will know that there will be no 'garbage' left over from the install/uninstall. That is just one way in which you would want to have a Registry Back Up. If you like the sound of this...then it would be a good idea to EXPORT and overwrite your REGISTRY BACK UP at the end of each day you log off the computer. Then, it would reflect all the changes that you have done, and where you system is running to your satisfaction. These little no-time-to-do tips can save you HOURS to weeks of reinstall, or computer software surgery!!!Mitch

[tf51d 284]

One thing I would suggest about backing up the registry is to rename the extension or zip it up if you leave it on your local system. You don't want to accidentally click on it, which will reload it. That can cause real problems. You will lose any changes made since the backup which could put things really out of sync.

[brucek 38]

I will try this- recently installed Win 7 (64) and just starting to install add-ons and tweaks to FSX.Thanks, Bruce.

[Guest TomOOO]

HiI hope I don't state the obvious but there are different levels of recovery of work amd you might consider some of these for a computer with FSX on. image : An image is an exact copy of everything on your HD and includes all the drivers (including graphics card tweaks), registery (ie your settings) and all data. It is used to recover a computer exactly to a point in time (when you made the image). In theory you can use an image on an another computer with the same hardware/vendor, but in general it is used to recover a computer back from a disaster. Nomally you make an image of all the disks normally attached to your computer (internal ones) as the registery will have references to these - and they are done by partition. Get yourself a separate HD for about