Backing up MSTS

[ENDOR]

I see a lot of advice on making a full backup of MSTS before installing any new routs etc. I have always backed up my trains folder and any routes i have downloaded ie Swansea and Woodhead. But not the ones I have had on CD from UKTrainSim. How much of a full backup can you reinstall .ie can I use the backup to make a full working copy of MSTS on another drive. I think when MSTS is first installed it must make some registry entries but if you used the backup this would not do that. Also I use Trainstore to run MSTS with so many routs and trainsets. I always do a full sweep of Route Riter ,Conbuilder and Activity Analyzer when install any activity etc. I had a 100% clean install at one stage. Now after using Trainstore a few times then unstoring everything I have started to get a lot of errors. If I use Route Riter again I have lots of faults with s files that I had fixed before . Any help please

[dipper6]

>But not the ones I have had on CD from UKTrainSim.
I back up all my CD's / DVD's except for the copy protected ones. Better to be safe than sorry, all that is needed are a few scratches to ruin the disk.

>can I use the backup to make a full working copy of MSTS on another drive.
No, because there will not be any registry entries for it and possibly .dll's etc.
You could only use it to copy back into the original installation if you have a problem with it, but then you'll have the add-ons installed so that won't work as a lot of files may be changed.
What I do is to use an imaging program, in my case True Image 11, to make exact images of what I want to image. If you run into a problem, simply restore the image and you will be back to when you made the image. I make images as I go along when I install my add-ons. You must put the images on another partition / drive because you cannot read / write to a drive / partition that you are making an image of.
This procedure has "saved my bacon" many, many times. I also do it with my OS and other things.

>I think when MSTS is first installed it must make some registry entries but if you used the backup this >would not do that
Correct, see above.

>I use Trainstore to run MSTS with so many routes and trainsets. I always do a full sweep of Route Riter >,Conbuilder and Activity Analyzer when install any activity etc. I had a 100% clean install at one stage. >Now after using Trainstore a few times then unstoring everything I have started to get a lot of errors. If I >use Route Riter again I have lots of faults with s files that I had fixed before . Any help please

I have had many problems with "missing files" as reported by Route_riter.
Only yesterday I again installed MSTS. I did absolutely nothing except defragment it, I did not install any add-ons. I ran RRiter to check the routes, I still can't believe the number of files it lists as missing, yet, the routes run OK. I think I should say, they "seem" to work OK.

[NicolaFan06]

>can I use the backup to make a full working copy of MSTS on another drive.
No, because there will not be any registry entries for it and possibly .dll's etc.
You could only use it to copy back into the original installation if you have a problem with it, but then you'll have the add-ons installed so that won't work as a lot of files may be changed.

Actually not true, MSTS does not depend on any external dlls other than DirectX, it DOES have some registry entries, but these are easily backed up, and you could run the backup copy from another drive without breaking anything. Unless you actually run the MSTS uninstall program, or reinstall Windows, the registry entries will still be intact anyway.

On the few occasions I've forgotten to backup my registry entries before reinstalling Windows, I've just installed MSTS off the CDs, then copied my backup straight over the top, zero problems and works perfectly.

[dipper6]

Actually not true, MSTS does not depend on any external dlls other than DirectX, it DOES have some registry entries, but these are easily backed up, and you could run the backup copy from another drive without breaking anything. Unless you actually run the MSTS uninstall program, or reinstall Windows, the registry entries will still be intact anyway.

I didn't post that it uses DLL's, I thought it might use them or other things, and wots an external DLL.

Anyway, the registry entries need to have the pointers changed to the other drive.

[Tonysmedley]

I have MSTS on my G drive. Recently I loaded another copy on to another drive and then installed a new route as I was uncertain whether that route was making problems. As far as I can see both copies will run independentlty depending on which I choose. If that is the case copying add-ons trains sets etc, from one copy to the other should be straightforward.

[NicolaFan06]

Actually not true, MSTS does not depend on any external dlls other than DirectX, it DOES have some registry entries, but these are easily backed up, and you could run the backup copy from another drive without breaking anything. Unless you actually run the MSTS uninstall program, or reinstall Windows, the registry entries will still be intact anyway.

I didn't post that it uses DLL's, I thought it might use them or other things, and wots an external DLL.

Anyway, the registry entries need to have the pointers changed to the other drive.

For it to run normally? No, they don't need changing, see the large number of people running mini-installations for specific routes, or stock. They only need changing for utilities that reference MSTS by looking up the paths in the registry. I've run several copies like this myself with absolutely zero problems.

As far as DLLs go, introducing "mights" and "maybes" when you don't know either way only serves to confuse things, which is what I was clearing up - "might need" quickly becomes "does need" by the chinese whispers style that information travels around the internet.

[jbilton]

Hi
Train store will not alter any files, however if you edit something while its in store then unstore, you'll over write the later edited version.( I think it prompts you though)
As has been previously posted MSTS needs (in fact can have) only one set of registry entries.
It will actually run with none, but it always starts with all the default settings. 640x480 screen, manual fireman, alerter on
I only backup files that have been edited.
A lot of the latest versions of UKTS Cd's come with stock deliberately named slightly different, so as to avoid writing over already edited stock.
Cheers
Jon

[ENDOR]

Thanks for all the input. One remark about backing up using something like SmartSync is that if you do an auto backup .Sometimes all the files are in Trainstore so you only back up the route in use. And SmartSync deletes any files that it don't find in the backup. I have an ideal situation to test out a few of your theories about backups. I have an old computer that i can make use of. I will install MSTS on drive C plus all my extra routs and stock. Then move it to drive D. Just for the fun of it. I will get back after this experiment.
Also my query about trainstore and errors after moving the stock backwards and forwards. I cant think that i have edited any of the stock or added new stock so it looks like it may be the odd file that gets confused when moving backwards and forwards. That's the sort of thing we get used to with computer. Very unpredictable.

[dipper6]

first, what is SmartSync as mentioned above & where can it be got ?

For the umptenth time in the last 2 months I re-installed Windows XP & MSTS, there was always a problem with something.

I have just finished it, I copied the installation to another partition and it worked, not a problem.
there are very few programs that will do that.

I stand corrected & I offer apologies.

Anyway, I spent 6 hours with the installation, I used Acronis Disk Director to delete the partitions and had the drive formatted in Windows Vista using the hard drive "setup" facility. I exited vista when it was formatted.
Then I used Paragon Partition Manager to set the partitions & format. This program only cleans the MBR, vista cleans the drive.

then Acronis True Image 11 to restore Windows XP and my utilities in partition D. I installed 'net Framework V2. Now I uninstalled the ATI Radeon driver, then installed the 7.3 driver, 7.3 Catalyst I had not installed this in some of my installations and WDM for my X1950 graphics card.
I re-installed the chipset driver. I disabled unnecessary services, and changed settings here and there.

I now installed MSTS, the xplosiv version. I got something I did not get on many previous installs.
At the end of the install the program informed that it did something to icons, probably set them up, previously the installer just shut down when files were installed.
So far it is ok, I don't have any add-ons installed, I'm about to do that.

[rogermatthews]

Ian - interesting that you've installed Windows 'for the umpteenth time'.

I too have reinstalled XP many times, often getting blase about doing it to sort out recurrent problems. I must have installed it around two dozen times in the past two years (not months!) until I finally got a message when registering that 'you have exceeded the maximum number of times you can install Windows XP'. Got it to do it in the end (phone confirmation) but I'm a bit more wary now!

Cheers

Roger

[NicolaFan06]

I stand corrected & I offer apologies.

I don't see that you've got anything to apologise for, you gave the best answer you could based on what you knew and your own experiences, which is all that any of us can really do.

[dipper6]

Ian - interesting that you've installed Windows 'for the umpteenth time'.
Roger

I only installed windows XP so many times because I had run out of ideas on how to get MSTS up &
running. So, when I re-installed MSTS I re-installed XP in case something was wrong with XP.

Now, I did not activate XP when I had it installed, I was waiting to find out if that installation of MSTS & XP worked, if it had I'd have activated it, if it had not - & it didn't - I simply started again, hoping it might work.
I tried many things, different hard drives ( I had some spare) etc etc.

I have done something that I think I'll post in it's own topic, it may be of interest to members, or it may not.
I use a hard drive caddy.

I read your PM Mark, thanks & no worries. I don't know if I successfully sent it to you, I hope I did.