Classic British Flight Sim

I previously had trouble with FSX failing on a 2TB disc, and reinstalled virtually everything to do with FSX on a 250Gb SSD.
After some time of OK, but not outstanding operation, it would get as far as "FLY NOW!" then go to a black screen, often with sound, but unable to gey any visuals, not even the top of screen menu with ALT.
Tried simplest default flight, but still no go.
Ran Acceleration repair, says OK.
Ran FSX repair, says computing space req.......copying new files,,,,,,,(no green progress bar)....Data error (Cyclic redundancy check)....Error 1603- Fatal error during installation...Consult Msi.chm Done that, ran unregister followed by register server........Tried again, no difference....Shut down, leave off for hours, tried again, no difference.
If the installation can change to the point of failure, I'm losing confidence in the value of doing another complete reinstall.
Dump a billion dollars of software and get XPlane?

Hello Mike - I've been revisiting the SSD question lately, because my AFS2 is getting quite large, with lots of hi-res scenery being developed by community members. It's a lot like the UK VFR days, in FS9.
When SSDs first appeared, the word was that they were good for scenery storage (write once, read many) but not so good for OS or FS installations, because they need 'write many read many' and SSDs apparently did not like that. For the same reason we were advised not to defrag SSD drives.
How much of that was just sales propaganda from the HDD manufacturers, I don't know. There is a lot of snake oil around out there.

Looking at the current SSD offerings, capacity has gone up and prices have dropped way down. They also talk about 'endurance' which seems to be measured in total read/writes, and I see some nice big Samsung things with a 5-year warranty. As usual, there is a lot of new jargon to be translated, so a visit to one of the online PC mags is a good idea.
I was looking here: https://www.computeralliance.com.au/ssd-drives because they are handy for me and I haven't had any probs with them, but most of this stuff comes from the same central warehouse anyway, so look at price and delivery costs from dealers in your area .
ATB
MikeW

I’ve been using Samsung SSD’s for years now. They’ve been built proof, have a good warranty and tools to migrate are available for free. I have some 2.5” versions and an M.2 one for my C drive.
They have 3 ranges last time I checked.
Pro
EVO
QVO

Pro is unnecessary for home use.
QVO isn’t a suitable option for the SIM,
So the EVO’s are a best option.

Thanks for the replies gentlemen,
Sorry if I'm coming across as dumb as I actually am, but the installation worked OK for a couple of months, so with no moving parts, how can it suddenly decide not to work? I thought that having FS, the scenery, and aircraft all on the dame wizz bang SSD would ensure fast access. Maybe I should spread those directories around different discs?
Perhaps MikeW's frequent read / write has brought things undone? Seems Ben is not having trouble.
MikeW's post suggests SSD not good for FS itself, so is reinstalling on the old 2TB spinning disc, the best option?

A couple pf years back, I made a new SSD take over as C: I'm now worried that this was a wrong move.

I've recently upped the RAM from 6 to 16Gb, but the trouble started long before that.

Ben's using SSDs without trouble, does that include OS Ben?
As a separate issue:
I tried cloning my wife's C: it said that the migration worked, but it wouldn't boot. All the files seemed to be there, individual programmes ran, documents and pictures were accessible, but only by using the original C: to start Windows.

I’ve been fully SSD for about 5 years now, other than the external backup drive which is usb. Never had a problem.

I've had FS (p3d) on a SSD for a few years now, which has seen a lot of updates, mods, addons and removals without any probelms. When I built my new system earlier in the year I put in 3 SSDs, one from my old system which had P3d on it but now is used mainly for DCS, and two new ones (one for P3d and one for the OS), all Samsung drives, the OS drive being an M.2
Back when I was first looking into getting a SSD I too was concerned with the life expectancy, but looking at the info regarding failure times there seemed to be not a lot in it between SSDs and HDDs in reality. I think they were much worse in the early days. Of course they can fail, as can HDDs (or any other component).

I installed a full SSD system on my new machine 4 years ago and have not had a problem of any sort. My recent problem with an SSD was due to a faulty new unit which would not work - it refused to be cloned - and this was replaced immediately by Crucial with no questions asked.

I have 3 x 2TB SSDs with P3D, X-Plane, AFS2, FSW, IL-2, Orbx and Train Simulator on my PC and my wife has an all SSD PC too so I have no hesitation in recommending SSDs for speed and quiet operation. BTW my operating system is also on SSD which gives almost instant start up.

So far as SSDs are concerned I am a happy bunny


ATB


Allan

That's settled then, SSDs are go.
Just bad luck that FSX packed up.
Because the repair didn't work, I uninstalled, which worked, then reinstalled, which did not work.
Looks like the reason the repair fell over is a tiny scratch on disc 1, 0.25mm x 3mm.
Now I'll have to buy FSX again.

SSDs here as well. 1x Crucial 500gb m.2 MX500 for the OS and 1x Crucial 2tb SATA MX500 for X-Plane etc.

The only SSDs I wouldn't touch would be the cheapest ones, especially those using older tech.

Airspeed wrote: ↑

21 Dec 2019, 06:49

Looks like the reason the repair fell over is a tiny scratch on disc 1, 0.25mm x 3mm.
Now I'll have to buy FSX again.

Mike - video rental places used to provide a polishing service to repair that sort of damage. I am quite sure there are still some around, even in darkest Victoria.
I made an FS9 backup disc - it is an all-in-one DVD and includes the upgrade and the no-cd hack. I really must do the same for my FSX

ATB
MikeW