P3D Version 2...

[petermcleland]

I'm a bit disappointed to see that P3D V2 which is just going into Beta testing is a Direct X11 program and will therefore require Windows 7 32 or 64 bit and will obviously not run in my Windows XP...I will have to think about that and may just go back to FS9

[TSR2]

That was always the case Peter. DX9 is very old now and certainly wont scratch the surface of any current Graphics card. P3D v2 was always going to be optimised for current hardware i.e. Multi core x64 systems running DX11. To be fair to LM this was stated before 1.4 was released around the same time they were hinting that 1.4 would be the last of the 1.x iterations.

[petermcleland]

That was always the case Peter. DX9 is very old now and certainly wont scratch the surface of any current Graphics card. P3D v2 was always going to be optimised for current hardware i.e. Multi core x64 systems running DX11. To be fair to LM this was stated before 1.4 was released around the same time they were hinting that 1.4 would be the last of the 1.x iterations.

Thanks Ben...I obviously missed that and have been looking forward to V2 in vain

[Nigel H-J]

Thanks Ben...I obviously missed that and have been looking forward to V2 in vain

What a shame Peter, though have you thought about buying Win 7 or even a 2nd hand one as with Win 8 now out Win 7 should be slightly cheaper? Though I suppose if you have FS9 all set out as you want it, it could be a pain having to do a full install on another OS as well as sorting out the new P3D version.

Regards
Nigel.

[petermcleland]

Well I'm thinking about it Nigel...I have my Flight Sims on different partitions to my OS on C: so I could do the Cheat of format C: and then after putting in the new OS, I could Rename my existing "Flight Simulator 9" folder on drive G to "Previous"...Then I could install a minimum FS9 also on drive G and that would put it correctly in the new Windows 7 registry. Then I could DELETE the new "Flight Simulator 9" folder that I have just installed and finally rename the folder "Previous" back to "Flight Simulator 9"...That would get my present FS9 working in Windows 7 but I would still have to deal with various License problems with things like FSNAV and some of my aeroplanes would no longer work without modifications etc.

I might devise and write down a plan to follow...Bearing in mind that I do have my entire setup Backed up on external hard drives.

[Nigel H-J]

Oh dear!! Now that sounds like a lot of work just to move FS9 from one OS to another, I'm afraid if I were faced with that I would just stay where I am.

Nigel.

[petermcleland]

It occurs to me that I might be able to add an SSD drive to my machine and install Windows 7 onto that...How does an SSD drive fit into the system...Like plug into it as a recogniseable drive, how big is it? Is it seen by cmos as just another drive, will it automatically become drive C:?

I expect Ben would know the answers to these questions

[Vancouver]

An SSD is no different to any normal HD. Just smaller, faster and non de-fraggable. And until recently I did not realise that they wear out eventually just like a mechanical HD. The order of boot up would entail editing your Bios. Going about it that way looks more trouble than it is worth. You could investigate multi boot systems but I have no clue about that.
Seems to me that the best option would be bite the bullet and get windows 7 64 bit, stick it on an SSD. XP is now 12 years old and I think MS no longer support it.
P3D v2 may not be all it is cracked up to be, I've never been impressed with the claims of V1.4 and it sits idle on my PC. So I won't be rushing to aquire the new one. I will aloow others to do my testing for me.

[Chris Trott]

When I did my rebuild earlier this year, I ended up not only upgrading the Mobo/CPU as planned, but got a 2TB main drive to replace 2 of the 4 HDD's that I'd had previously. All I had to do was install FS9, FSX, and my other programs into the new main partition of the 2TB drive and then copy everything else from the old drives to the new one. This took about 3 days in total as I needed to use the computer at times, but now that it's all done, I've taken out my two oldest HDD's while gaining over 75% total storage on a clean 64-bit Win7 install. It took time, but it was worth it for the major increase in performance.

[petermcleland]

I'm now thinking about adding a 240 GB SSD to my existing case, in a spare drive dock...What should happen then is that with nothing on it, the drive letter automatically given to it will be J:(Juliette). The machine should then boot up absolutely as it does now on Drive C: with no changes required to my software and everything should run as now on the Drive C: Windows XP...My computer will see the new drive as J: and there will be nothing on it and I can format it if required.

Next I will change the boot up sequence so that the computer boots on the DVD Player Drive E: and in it will be the Windows 7 DVD. Now I can install Windows 7 64 bit from the DVD, onto the new SSD Drive J:

When that is completed and the boot up sequence reset to as before, a reboot should offer me the choice of Booting up on Drive C: for Windows XP or Drive J: for Windows 7. The Windows 7 registry could then be built up by installing say P3D v2 on one of the other drives after uninstalling P3D v1.4.

At this stage the booting choice of Windows 7 will give me just the new P3D as the only operating added software, but if I choose to boot onto Windows XP then I will have everything I have got now except the old P3D v1.4. My FS9 and FSX will be unaffected. Well that is the rough plan but I am sure the experts here will find some holes in it