Moving DCS World install to SSD

Hello,

I am looking to move my DCS World install to my SSD. I am wondering if this can be done without uninstalling the game and then redownloading the game/modules/updates and can instead simply be copied to the new SSD.

I am not running the Steam version of the game. Would simply moving my install be possible? And if it can be done, will it use up an activation?

I know Steam/Origin works different, but I recently copied/pasted about 60GB of games from my HDD to my SSD which was far quicker than redownloading/reinstalling them.

Make a copy of your DCS World on the SSD. Rename the original DCS World on the HDD to something else. Run the .EXE from DCS World on the SSD and see if it gives you any errors.

Should be as Simple as Copy/Paste, Make a New Shortcut.

Will not future references for DCS goes in a wrong direction if it will be just moved without registry changes? I would dare to say yes.

So either check your registry for anything related to DCS (dcs.exe, etc) and change the path there accordingly to your new path, or just uninstall and reinstall (the most safer way). As far as I know in this case the activation status will not be affected.

start 'regedit' and check

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Eagle Dynamics\<product>

There are the products and some have a 'path' entry.

I've changed these to point to the SSD copy.

And... Will it use an activation or deactivation?

I can confirm that you can simply copy and paste it to the SSD. The only thing is that you need to change the reference of the shortcuts that come with the game install to the correct location of the client.

There's no need of deactivating and reactivating or do weird things in your OS registry as long as DCS stays on the same OS.

Didn't I read a while back that even if you spend your 10 activation attempts, you will get a new one every month? It's not like ED forbids you to change hardware... It's just that they don't like you paying once, running twice.

And... Will it use an activation or deactivation?

No. Just moving it around does not touch the activation, which sits in the registry.

Just do as other says move/copypaste from hd to ssd and make a new shortcut works fine

The autoupdater will work just fine as well. However, you will no longer be able to use any of the shortcuts in the Startmenu (without redirecting them).

Personally, I would just do a clean install onto the SSD, it takes so little time that it is almost as fast as the copy/paste and fixing of shortcuts.

I also agree, that if you are going to put DCS on an SSD, you should be putting Windows there (or on a separate SSD) as well. Otherwise, you are really only doing half of the job.

DO NOT RE-INSTALL

Just copy the entire ED directory to the new drive, then

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link

Make a Directory Junction in the old ED folder location, point it to the new folder.

EX: mklink /J "OLD DIR PATH" "NEW DIR PATH"

DO NOT RE-INSTALL

Just copy the entire ED directory to the new drive, then

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link

Make a Directory Junction in the old ED folder location, point it to the new folder.

 

EX: mklink /J "OLD DIR PATH" "NEW DIR PATH"

This is completely unnecessary. You can just copy/paste, create new shortcuts or edit the old ones and you are done.

I can confirm that you can simply copy and paste it to the SSD. The only thing is that you need to change the reference of the shortcuts that come with the game install to the correct location of the client.

There's no need of deactivating and reactivating or do weird things in your OS registry as long as DCS stays on the same OS.

And did this work fine with future updates?

Yes.

Oh man, just copy the damn thing already, it's not going to bite :D

There's no need of deactivating and reactivating or do weird things in your OS registry as long as DCS stays on the same OS.

There is a need to change the Path keys from the registry.

Not for running DCS but to allow the updater to find other installed branches to copy/paste files from. So not mandatory, but cleaner and useful to save a lot of download time if you have open beta and/or open alpha.

If my word is not enough, this was confirmed by c0ff here:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=154865

Move your whole OS to SSD too ;) you will love it

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Always best to reinstal clean for the reasons Azrayen pointed.

I did it recently myself and I can testify that you will be blown away by how much less loading time you will have!!!! I load the whole thing in mere seconds!!! So useful for mission editing and building!!

Agreed, strongly recommend SSD's for both the OS and for games.

I have two of them, one for my C drive that holds my OS and program files, and another SSD that I install all my games on, namely DCSW.

It depends from how much one understands about Computersystems, Hardware and dependencies.

The less you know or the lower on the ladder of wisdom the more you have to redo things from scratch...and learn while you do it.

The more experienced you are the more you will dare to fix things rather then redo.

One should judge this rather on his own skills and will than IF it is possible at all for people with skills and experience.

You can safely copy&paste as stated many times with DCS. It is application dependent if this can be done easily without altering the registry and/or other config files by hand.

Most windows apps will not like that, the more sophisticated they are the less the changes moving from A to B will work, again, with DCS it works as it does not rely on absolut path rather relative path from withing the launching folder ( thats how i see it from watching how and what it does ).

Other dependencies may or may not apply.

Is there any point of moving dcs to ssd besides of loading time? I ask because I am about to do a new install.

DCS sometimes accesses the disk during flight. For example if you fly into a new section of the map DCS loads it from the disk. This can sometimes lead to stuttering while DCS is loading the map chunk. A ssd will help with that.

TL;DR: A SSD shortens load times, even during flight.

I can say I have yet to see a single stutter in DCS 1.5 or 2.0.

Now whether that has anything to do with my having SSD drives I don't know.