SSD and slower?

[dstelley]

Maybe there is a better approach so I thought I'd ask first.

I have an existing running system where the game is installed on a normal drive, good video, good CPU good memory. All is well everything works.

I thought I'd make it better by introducing an SSD drive (64Gb) and run the game from there to make it that much quicker.


(windows 7)

I renamed the N3v Games folder to old_n3v games and created a new folder N3v games. I them mounted the SSD drive into there and copied the exisitng files and folders from the "old" into the new.

It took a while but when complete for all intents and purposes I had Trainz running on SSD.

Except it is extremely slow.....

Any idea why?

This is a good quality Crucial drive so its performance should be fine.

I could have just made a new drive (call it T for trainz) and installed new but I didnt know how to move all cdp's, routes, scenarios etc from the old to the new.......

HELP!!!!

(Thanks in advance)

 

[BD1]

placemarker

 

[clam1952]

Uhh? Mounting an SSD drive on a folder on a normal drive?

Did you mount it before copying anything to it and check it is actually mounted, otherwise it's still going to be on the old drive. Also not sure its going to work with different drive speeds, probably be choked by the fact that the folder is on a slow drive.

Simpler and works properly.
Either
Add SSD Drive, give it the next available drive letter, copy Trainz install to it set up short cuts, change file associations to point at the correct Trainz.

Or Add SSD drive, give next letter, Install trainz to SSD which sets up paths and registry info, then copy original install over the top of the new install which avoids having to patch and import userdata folder or change file associations etc.

Or If trainz is on it's own drive with nothing else, Change its drive letter to next available, add SSD give original Trainz drive letter, copy original install to SSD, again paths and registry remains as was.

 

[dstelley]

When you mount a drive one of your options is to mount within an empty NTFS folder on an exising drive. That is what I did.

when I browse to "C:\Program Files (x86)\N3V Games" I am really being redirected to a new drive.

 

[sniper297]

What I did was go into the C:\Auran folder, select the TS2010 folder, copy. Change to F:\ (the SSD drive) and paste. Then I opened F:\TS2010, selected trainz.exe, copy. Change to desktop and right click, paste shortcut.

 

[dstelley]

no registry entries to worry about?

That would work for me!

 

[sniper297]

Dunno if that would work in vista/7, I got XP. But looking over the registry entries for "trainz" there's no path, so copying the folder to anywhere and creating a shortcut works fine here.

 

[clam1952]

Dunno if that would work in vista/7, I got XP. But looking over the registry entries for "trainz" there's no path, so copying the folder to anywhere and creating a shortcut works fine here.

Can confirm no problems in Win7, So long as it's run as Administrator other than file associations which are easily fixed, don't bother myself as Drag and Drop works as does importing.

 

[sniper297]

Don't use drag and drop myself, being an old DOS dinosaur I cut my GUI teeth on Windows 3.0 File Manager so I copy/paste or cut and paste out of habit.

 

[dstelley]

Final follow up, its running fine.

I had to change only a couple items. I had to do an extended database repair as well as change the handling of .cdp (and cdp2) files but boy what a difference!

I dont know how lond SSD dives will last compared to spinning platter, but they are very well suited to programs like this where a zillian files are opened and closed.

 

[NickieFoenshauge]

Just out of curiosity, is it an internal SSD drive, or is it an external drive connected through eSata or USB?

 

[dstelley]

It is an internal Crucial 64G drive. 2.5 inches. I have nothing on it except Trainz. (TS12) Now that I've seen the differene I will very likely do the same thing with the Windows directory. while actual transfer speeds arent a huge savings, the seek times are unreal.
Any program that depends on thousands of small files to operate will see an almost unholy speed increase.

 

[NickieFoenshauge]

Thanks. Wish I could do the same. Not with a notebook, though.

 

[clam1952]

Thanks. Wish I could do the same. Not with a notebook, though.

Actually you can put an SSD in a notebook assuming you can get at the existing drive and it's SATA and not IDE. Several drives come with a cables and disk for cloning your existing notebook or laptop drive to SSD, saves the hassle of reinstalling, think its a basic USB to SSD adapter, then you just remove the old drive and insert the new and check the bios has picked it up. example here, http://www.cclonline.com/product/80...ves/Kingston-240GB-HyperX-3K-SSD-Kit/HDD1446/ there are others that's just the first that came up on a search.

 

[NickieFoenshauge]

Sure, I could do that. But, I have almost 500 GB on my existing drive, so, even if I could find a SSD drive large enough, it would be extremely expensive. An external USB drive just for Trainz would be more acceptable, but I suppose this is not a good solution.

 

[socalwb909]

-Maybe you have an old motherboard. SSD's are sataIII. I only have sataII, which is backwards compatible but with a slight decrease in performance, but still was a great improvement over my 10000rpm raptor drive.

-Joe

 

[KenGreen]

Nickie
I've seen some SSD's that use the express slot on Laptops. I nearly bought one but decided that my laptop wasn't worth upgrading.

Ken

As an example:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/64GB-Wintec...Z332/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348256219&sr=8-2

 

[NickieFoenshauge]

Unfortunately no Express slot on my notebook, Ken, just USB2. Should have bought one with USB3