FSX on external SSD

[Sramp17]

Has anyone done this? I am getting rid of my desktop machine and going to a laptop with a eGPU. There are multiple reasons I am doing this but wont bore you with those details.

Essentially I have two questions:

1. How do I get to a point that I can reinstall FSX to a new machine? Do I need to get foresight involved for a new download link, can I reuse the old one, etc.
2. Can I install FSX to my external SSD like I did with steam and all my games on there for increased portability?

Thanks!

-Steve

[Baller]

Haven't done it, but I believe e you should have no problem. FS does not need to be involved. You just have to login to your online portal and go to licenses and deregister the current system and use the key to register a new one.

[vrpunk]

Portability?
You can’t plug your external ssd into another laptop and expect it to run, FSX would need installing as it uses windows registry for settings.
But once it is installed on say three laptops, which ever one you are using, you simply deactivate machineID online and activate machineID of the laptop you want.

If it’s s hassle, then maybe ask foresight for the dongle version, I think they charge.

[Sramp17]

Portability?
You can’t plug your external ssd into another laptop and expect it to run, FSX would need installing as it uses windows registry for settings.
But once it is installed on say three laptops, which ever one you are using, you simply deactivate machineID online and activate machineID of the laptop you want.

If it’s s hassle, then maybe ask foresight for the dongle version, I think they charge.

Why not? I do it with steam as it is. I can plug into any computer and open steam from my external SSD, and it launches the game. Doesn't need to install a single file. Its literally plug and play on any machine

[vrpunk]

Yes I have steam and games, but FSX is not a game, it installs settings to the local registry after install, not saying you can’t install into ssd, but if you plug it into a machine that has never had FSX installed on it, it will be looking for all the registry settings that don’t exist and do will
throw up errors on run.....try it.....but as you have found foresight controls the install folder.

[Sramp17]

Thanks for the response, what you are saying makes sense. I spoke with foresight tech support and at first the guy on the phone said that yes I can install to an external SSD, so I asked how and that the installed wont let me choose anywhere aside from the C: drive so he changed his answer. So I am not sure he fully understood what I was asking. But it sounds like it wont work and ill probably just have to install it directly on my new laptops main hard drive which isn't the end of the world. FSX is a lot smaller than my steam folder anyway

vrpunk you seem educated on this stuff. Do you think it could be possible for me to install to C: drive, copy files/folders to S: drive (Letter named for my SSD) and copy the launcher to my desktop with a directory linked to the S: drive?

[vrpunk]

Possible with testing
You need to run Regedit, find all the foresight keys that reference the C:\ drive and change to S:\
It will fall over if they have hard coded the path in the actual application rather than soft core it using registry references
Good luck

[Sramp17]

As an update I found my original download link in an old email from when I purchased my GC2 and FSX direct from foresight. Redownloaded the installer, moved to SSD and attempted an install. It does not give me an option of where I would like my install performed and defaults to my C: drive which I do not want. I am trying to find a work around for this.

If anyone has some input I'd love to hear it

[mmlincon]

I don't know if this will work or not. Moving the FSX license from one machine to another is pretty straight forward as I've done it numerous times. What is not so easy is any courses you have. They get activated on a machine and there is not utility to move them to another. Actually, you might be able to de-activate them in game and re-active them on another system. I have not idea if just moving a SSD between systems would work. I'm thinking it wouldn't without the license move as the machine name is registered when you activate the license. Let us know if it does work if you give it a go.

[CarolynVJ]

I did it some time ago. You should not have any problems whatsoever. FS is not needed. Just deregister and then login into the new account.Just be sure all the information is on the external SD and is backed up unless you want to lose all your files, as I did some years ago. I spent nights wondering how to get them back until I found https://www.salvagedata.com/memory-card-recovery/. It saved all my information. Anyways, if something goes wrong, you will know what to use. But I hope it doesn’t come to it.

[MongoOnlyPawn]

I think what you are looking for is a bootable external SSD. If you were to set up the machine to boot from USB, and had installed your operating system and FSX on the external SSD you might be able to get it to work? I'm not a techie, obviously, but I think you'd have a chance at making that work, otherwise, as discussed above, the install files that get placed in obscure folders are going to be missing. But I do know you can run a PC off of an external hard drive if the operating system and programs reside all together on the external drive. I think...