Moving SimSig between Hard Drives

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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 11:37 #130536
moonraker
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If I wanted to change the parent drive of SimSig to a different one on the same machine how would I go about it ? Any help appreciated
Last edited: 10/08/2020 at 11:37 by moonraker
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 11:55 #130537
headshot119
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You would need to use the folder options button in the loader to set up a new file path to the new installation.

EG

D:\Awoga\Awoga1\SimSig

Which would then look for simulations and timetables in D:\Awoga\Awoga1\SimSig\Simulations and D:\Awoga\Awoga1\SimSig\Timetables.

A note of caution - It's generally not recommended to install SimSig outside of it's default location.

"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 12:07 #130538
moonraker
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I understand. My main SSD drive at the moment only has limited space available and is the reason for asking. Thanks for the advice
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 12:53 #130539
postal
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moonraker in post 130538 said:
I understand. My main SSD drive at the moment only has limited space available and is the reason for asking. Thanks for the advice
I have the same situation (and it is likely to become more and more common as people upgrade their laptops). There are couple of very small files still on my SSD (\Public\Public Document\SimSig\) but everything else SimSig runs quite happily from a bespoke location on my HDD (D: drive). The advantage of the latest loader/licence manager set up is that if you get things wrong you can just re-install and everything will download back to the default locations without any unlocking of licences or whatever.

Perhaps in view of the increasing prevalence of a small SSD and a larger HDD (marked as C: (OS) and D: (Data) on my newish Dell which gives a clue to what Dell think the user should be doing) some thought might be given to a re-vamp of the installation procedure to allow for this sort of set-up.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 13:06 #130540
moonraker
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If you don't mind me asking what is the procedure for doing it your way. That's what I had in mind. Step by step would be helpful
Last edited: 10/08/2020 at 13:06 by moonraker
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 13:30 #130541
postal
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moonraker in post 130540 said:
If you don't mind me asking what is the procedure for doing it your way. That's what I had in mind. Step by step would be helpful
First caveat; this is all unofficial, I offer the comments in good faith but I take no responsibility if anything goes wrong when you try it and I don't have time to run a helpline service if anyone is having problems.

It's so long ago that I first created a separate bespoke location (in those days in my section of the HDD not the Public section) that I honestly can't remember. I think I just copied everything across then used the Folder Options button to create a new entry pointing to the new location. I think there are still a couple of files that must live in the default location in Public Documents (CommonConfig.dat and simulations.xml), the SimSig fonts need to live in the Fonts folder in the Windows directory but everything else can be moved; remember to keep the same folder structure inside your new bespoke location that was originally in the default location.

When I got the new laptop I just migrated everything from the SimSig location on the old machine's C: Drive to the new D: drive, installed the system files again to the new C: Drive, reset the data location using the Folder Options button and everything worked straight out of the box.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
Last edited: 10/08/2020 at 13:32 by postal
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 14:11 #130542
moonraker
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Seems to work ok. Have also been able to upgrade to the latest loader by reinstalling the system files. Many thanks
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 16:22 #130543
bill_gensheet
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postal in post 130539 said:

Perhaps in view of the increasing prevalence of a small SSD and a larger HDD (marked as C: (OS) and D: (Data) on my newish Dell which gives a clue to what Dell think the user should be doing) some thought might be given to a re-vamp of the installation procedure to allow for this sort of set-up.
If Microsoft gave any thought to it, SimSig would automatically follow as it uses variable paths (ie [Where-Windows-Puts-Stuff] not absolute ones.

Dell will have a custom 'ghost' installation set up to work that way, surprised it did not also pull the [Where-Windows-Puts-Stuff] location too.

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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 10/08/2020 at 16:55 #130545
postal
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bill_gensheet in post 130543 said:
Dell will have a custom 'ghost' installation set up to work that way, surprised it did not also pull the [Where-Windows-Puts-Stuff] location too.
Created my account on the new machine and it put my user folder on C: drive. Had to manually re-assign all the stuff like My Documents to D: drive.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 14:33 #130556
MrSuttonmann
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Last edited: 12/08/2020 at 10:32 by MrSuttonmann
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 14:58 #130558
JamesN
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manadude2 in post 130556 said:
It would be much nicer and simpler if SimSig installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\SimSig, rather than the rather oddly-chosen Public Documents folder.
Nicer and Simpler - Apart from the myriad of user permissions problems that would then resurface having been solved with the move to a public folder....

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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 15:22 #130559
postal
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manadude2 in post 130556 said:
It would be much nicer and simpler if SimSig installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\SimSig, rather than the rather oddly-chosen Public Documents folder.
Which you can do at your own behest if you change the default location when you install.

Installing to C:\. . . . would rather negate the whole point of this thread which was about moving stuff from a small C:\ drive as space was an issue.

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 15:31 #130560
MrSuttonmann
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Last edited: 12/08/2020 at 10:33 by MrSuttonmann
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 16:03 #130562
postal
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So what started as a relatively simple idea is now getting more and more complicated in the interests of proving a point.
“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 16:55 #130563
GeoffM
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manadude2 in post 130560 said:
JamesN in post 130558 said:
manadude2 in post 130556 said:
It would be much nicer and simpler if SimSig installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\SimSig, rather than the rather oddly-chosen Public Documents folder.
Nicer and Simpler - Apart from the myriad of user permissions problems that would then resurface having been solved with the move to a public folder....
Not necessarily. There's no reason why the system files, simulations and official timetables couldn't be installed to Program Files.
Custom timetables and saves could then be stored in C:\Users\<Username>\SimSig.

As for permissions, the Launcher already asks for UAC permission to update itself, so additionally prompting to update simulations wouldn't be an issue.

This is the general pattern most Windows applications use, in fact some of Microsoft's software certification programs (such as the Windows Logo) require that applications set their default installation location to the Program Files directory. (Source)
Seems you're using an incomplete blog comment to prove your "point" yet is missing a rather large amount of detail and requirements SimSig has to adhere to. If you read actual requirements, rather than an opinion blog, you'll realise how far off your "oddly chosen" really is.

SimSig Boss
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 18:31 #130565
MrSuttonmann
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I apologise.
(Formerly known as manadude2)
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 20:40 #130569
Hawk777
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I, too, get annoyed every time a program doesn’t default to installing to Program Files, or doesn’t work properly when installed there, or whatever. But I don’t bother asking people to fix it; it’s just life in today’s world of computers, sadly.
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 11/08/2020 at 21:28 #130572
9pN1SEAp
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Disclaimer: don't do this if you don't know what you're doing.

The Public/Documents/SimSig could of course be made a junction to a different drive.

Jamie S (JAMS)
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 12/08/2020 at 10:55 #130577
danners430
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It could, but that can make Windows play silly buggers when you get your next Win10 feature update... Best avoided for system directories and library locations in my experience.
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 12/08/2020 at 13:14 #130579
Jan
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Moving the whole Users directory is somewhat supported, and I've successfully upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 with my Users directory remaining relocated to a different hard drive.
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Moving SimSig between Hard Drives 12/08/2020 at 17:46 #130595
GeoffM
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Jan in post 130579 said:
Moving the whole Users directory is somewhat supported, and I've successfully upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 with my Users directory remaining relocated to a different hard drive.
Until you get some badly written software that hard codes itself to a particular place (ie "C:\Users\mynamehere" instead of $CurrentUser$ kind of thing). As others have said, generally it's not a great idea.

SimSig Boss
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