Atomic Systems

Hi,

I wondered if I could pose a technical question:-

I have a 250Gb SATA HD in a Desktop PC which has MSTS installed on, along with literally Gb's of routes and stock. I have bought a SATA HD USB Powered Caddy so I can remove the HD from the Desktop, install into the caddy and connect via USB to my laptop (which incidentally is an ACER 5040 with 2Gb RAM, AMD Turion 1.6GHz chip with ATI RADEON Express graphics, not the best for MSTS I admit but the best I can afford at the minute).

The question I am asking is whether it is possible or not to export any MSTS registry settings from the desktop and import them into the registry on the laptop in order to save re-installing MSTS into the same folder that it is already in (on the SATA Drive).

I hope this makes some kind of sense, basically the laptop's HD is not big enough to install MSTS plus all my routes and stock that I have on my SATA HD, hence wanting to (if possible), simply remove the SATA HD, install into a caddy, connect to the laptop via USB, tweak the registry to "point" to the MSTS Installation folder on the SATA HD whenever the .exe program file is run and go from there.

Hope someone can advise.

Thank you and a happy Christmas to one and all.

Paul

Hi Paul

Yes it is try Otto's reg settings.

http://www.otto-wipfel.co.uk/msts-downl ... pairer.zip

Cheers
Jon

Jon,

Many thanks for this, to be honest this is exactly what I was talking about, I was toying with the idea of going into the Registry on the desktop and searching for all instances of MSTS and then exporting these, then importing them to the laptop (after changing the drive letters of course).

This seems to be the solution.

Many thanks indeed.

Paul

If its an external USB caddy then MSTS will not be as good (fast) as a hard drive in the computer.

pauljscott2003 wrote:Jon,

Many thanks for this, to be honest this is exactly what I was talking about, I was toying with the idea of going into the Registry on the desktop and searching for all instances of MSTS and then exporting these, then importing them to the laptop (after changing the drive letters of course).

This seems to be the solution.

Many thanks indeed.

Paul

Hi Paul
Thanks for your thanks........ glad I could help.
Cheers
Jon

dipper6 wrote:If its an external USB caddy then MSTS will not be as good (fast) as a hard drive in the computer.

Ian,

Thanks for this, the external HD is a SATA 250Gb connected to the laptop via USB2.0.

The laptop has a 70Gb ATA (IDE I think) HD partitioned into 2 x 35Gb, one of which is totally empty.

Based on what you are saying (I have got MSTS working on the external HD by the way, albeit a little slow due to graphics power etc) would it be better for me to install MSTS on the 35Gb free partition on the HD in the laptop, rather than running it of the 250Gb SATA via USB2.0?

If I had a cheeky £700 spare I'd replace the laptop but times are hard at the mo, I can only make do with what I have got.

Many thanks,

Paul

A couple of questions.

Does your Laptop have an external SATA connector?

If not does it have a spare internal SATA connector?
.....that you can access of course.

If so you can buy external hard disc holders that have SATA connectors. That is the internal SATA drive connector has an external SATA lead connection on the box too (usually with USB2 and/or firewire options). No different to an internal drive if you use the SATA lead.

I ran MSTS for ages on one of these.

Geoff

Just had a thought; is this a situation for running MSTS as a series of MiniRoutes from the laptop, where the MiniRoutes are stored on the external HD?

Ruf

lateagain wrote:A couple of questions.

Does your Laptop have an external SATA connector?

If not does it have a spare internal SATA connector?
.....that you can access of course.

If so you can buy external hard disc holders that have SATA connectors. That is the internal SATA drive connector has an external SATA lead connection on the box too (usually with USB2 and/or firewire options). No different to an internal drive if you use the SATA lead.

I ran MSTS for ages on one of these.

Geoff

Geoff,

The laptop is an Acer 5040 which as far as I know only has one HD connector (which has the internal HD connected to it).

rufuskins wrote:Just had a thought; is this a situation for running MSTS as a series of MiniRoutes from the laptop, where the MiniRoutes are stored on the external HD?

Ruf,

The original idea was for MSTS and all the routes I own to run off the external HD via TrainStore, however I have now repartitioned the internal laptop HD and copied the MSTS folder onto that, changed the registry settings (so it 'points' to the correct drive) and it seems to work ok, however to be honest there doesnt seem much performance difference between running it on an internal ATA drive than on an external SATA drive connected via USB2.0.

Many thanks

Paul

Hi Paul,

I tried to get details of your model from the ACER site ....to no avail The sata connectors are "relatively" new, and laptops aren't generally known for adaptability . Still you can usually unplug the HDD without too much trouble and bung in a bigger one if needs be? Then of course you have to have the original system discs or license details etc.

Your comment on the difference in connectors is interesting. Sounds like you could free up that disc space again . So much "knowledge" and reports on systems is based on theoretical benchmarks rather than running actual applications . My generation were into Hi Fi and the magazines often praised equipment for frequency responses that were way beyond most folks hearing range anyway

Still the good news is that Otto's fixes work?

Geoff