Installing g4

[Bdegan]

Is it possible to break up the install of G4 onto multiple hard drives??

ie. the main program on the C drive and the data files on another drive.
To help aid in seek and load times.

I am not sure if I am explaining this clearly or not.

[josh0987]

It is better to install it all in C:\Program Files. (which it does anyway).

[Zelatio]

If you mean in a RAID 0(I believe that's the correct one I'm thinking of) array I'd say of course go for it. But if you mean just two separate hard drives then I'm not sure what you mean.

[rccardude04]

I know what you mean, but I have no idea why that could possibly help... If it did, all the gamers would be using 2 drives to install games on.
-Eric

[r1derbike]

I use 2 raptors in a raid 0 array. The main reason lots of people don't use arrays is cost. High-speed drives are expensive. I've got 340 bucks in two 74 gb drives.

RAID 0 arrays are prone to data corruption. I've had two major RAID crashes in a few years. Array clone backups are a must.

Some high-end gaming nuts have 4 raptors (or other speed drives) in RAID 0.

Is the difference in HDD read, write, access worth the extra cost for a home PC user? Probably not. It's worth a few bling points, and bragging rights, and unless you are a 24 hour a day, high-end online gamer, probably not necessary.

The problem is, when you have a fast machine, using other machines is like eating day old bread...leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Charles

[Adam Taylor]

G4 always stores custom data in your My Documents folder, and installs the exe + stock data into your Program Files folder by default. If you really wish to separate these onto two separate drives, you could install the program to a drive other than the one housing your My Documents folder. Alternatively, it is possible to tweak Windows to use a different location for your My Documents folder instead of the default one for whichever operating system you are using, so you could have RealFlight installed on your C drive with your My Documents folder residing on a separate drive, thus changing the drive G4 saves/loads custom data to/from. One program capable of making such tweaks is an official "PowerToy" from Microsoft called TweakUI, available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Be careful with that, though. It's a powerful tool and you can break things if you go changing things that you don't know the purpose of. As far as I know, that will only work on Windows XP. Other versions (or other programs altogether) may be available for other operating systems, but I have no experience with them.

I'm honestly doubtful there's much performance to be gained in RealFlight by doing this, though. A RAID array is probably a better solution if you're looking to optimize hard disk seek/load times.

[rccardude04]

I use 2 raptors in a raid 0 array. The main reason lots of people don't use arrays is cost. High-speed drives are expensive. I've got 340 bucks in two 74 mb drives.

RAID 0 arrays are prone to data corruption. I've had two major RAID crashes in a few years. Array clone backups are a must.

Some high-end gaming nuts have 4 raptors (or other speed drives) in RAID 0.

Is the difference in HDD read, write, access worth the extra cost for a home PC user? Probably not. It's worth a few bling points, and bragging rights, and unless you are a 24 hour a day, high-end online gamer, probably not necessary.

The problem is, when you have a fast machine, using other machines is like eating day old bread...leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Charles

I have a RAID 0 machine. Dual core, 2gb ram, 256mb video, etc. I know what difference all that makes. I think he's talking about installing the program in C:/Program Files/.... and to save airplane files into D:/... Especially on most pre-built computers, C and D are the same physical drive, just different logical ones. In a RAID 0 it's the opposite where there's 2 physical drives and 1 logical drive.
-Eric

[MadMonkey]

I've got 340 bucks in two 74 mb drives.

Wow, you got screwed....





















:D

[Jimmy Newton]

Wow, you got screwed....





















:D
...that he meant 74 Gb drives. (Correct me if I'm wrong Charles) Also the price he
paid is very dependent upon WHEN he bought the high speed drives. My first
hard drive was only a 10 Mb ( yes, a 10 megabyte ) and cost a whopping $ 995
which by the way was considered a steal at the time since a 5 Mb Apple HD was
going for over $1500. But back then, most of the users on this forum weren't
even born yet.

Jim :eek:

[Kmot]

In 1993 when I got my first computer, a 4MB upgrade was an added $200 bucks!

The hard drive was 540K, the memory was 4MB, the modem was 9.4K, the CRT was 15", and the processor I don't remember but can assure you it was state of the art at the time and by todays standards slow as a snail. And the system cost $1500 and a HP printer was an additional $500 so yeah it cost $2000 for that in 1993. Equivalent today to $2885. :eek:

[Ryan Douglas]

Bdegan, there seems to be some confusion over what you're actually asking. If my interpretation is correct, you want to know if you can install the RealFlight executable on one drive and the \Data directory containing the large .DCK files on another drive.

The answer to that question is no. They must reside together exactly the way they are installed. As others have pointed out, you do have the freedom to install the program (.exe & data) on whatever drive you like, which may be of some use to you.

[Bdegan]

Bdegan, there seems to be some confusion over what you're actually asking. If my interpretation is correct, you want to know if you can install the RealFlight executable on one drive and the \Data directory containing the large .DCK files on another drive.

The answer to that question is no. They must reside together exactly the way they are installed. As others have pointed out, you do have the freedom to install the program (.exe & data) on whatever drive you like, which may be of some use to you.

HI,
Yes thats exactly what I was asking :)

Will the program run just a smoothly off of another drive as it does off of the "C" drive ?
for example If I install it to my "F" drive...which is another physical drive from "C". It is not a partition.

And yes I do not like installing everything onto "C". Windows does a good enough job on its own of bloating that drive with alot of bells and whistles that most people don't use.
I like to give the operating system lots of breathing room.

[r1derbike]

Yep...74 GB, I think everyone knew what I meant, MadMonkey, but you... :D

I paid hundreds for my first TI-99 4A in the 70s, progressed thru the Trash 80 models, 1, 2, and 3. Got my first real computer that had an 8088 processor and Herc Graphics monochrome monitor. Before that I got the Vic/Commodore line, more TRS Color computers. Spent thousands of dollars on "real" computers after that, which aren't much use today, except as word processors. I've had several dozen computers in the last 30 years, built over a dozen high-end gaming machines for customers, built 3 for myself too!

So give an old man a break... :D

I've got a secret to share, MadMonkey...you are screwed the instant you buy anything computer related today. It is obsolete before it hits the shelves. :D

Charles

[r1derbike]

In a RAID 0 it's the opposite where there's 2 physical drives and 1 logical drive.
I've built 2 systems that had 4 drives in RAID 0, for customers, and with some clever server software/hardware implementation, achieved better performance than that with more drives.

I've also experimented with dividing data between two or many more drives, and the end result is data corruption, at some point. Never fails, sooner or later. Never a good idea to have an executable run data on separate, non-RAID drives, unless it was designed to, for whatever reason.

Charles

[r1derbike]

My gaming and sim programs run off my raid array, my internet/bloatware off another drive, and have other drives for various OS in the same computer as well.

I'm also a firm believer in giving gaming software its own "residence" to operate.

Makes good sense! :D

Charles

[Kmot]

you are screwed the instant you buy anything computer related today. It is obsolete before it hits the shelves. :D

Charles

I quote I heard a few years ago was perfect and still applies today:

"computer tech has the shelf life of sushi" :D

[Ryan Douglas]

HI,
Will the program run just a smoothly off of another drive as it does off of the "C" drive ?
If by "smoothly" you mean without errors, then yes, the specific drive you've chosen to install on should be transparent and irrelevant to G4. If by "smoothly" you're asking about performance differences, that's really dependent on your particular hardware.

[Bdegan]

Installed on "F" drive. It is a seperate physical drive from my "C" drive.
Everything works fine.
Thanks