FSX on External HDD?

[X_Splinter]

I would like to know if anyones if this will work fine, Installing FSX on External HDD USB2.0?

[whiskey-zulu]

Assuming the data transfer rate down the USB cable is fast enough, then it should work fine, otherwise it'll just eat up memory trying to access all
the data on the external; also if you're using a self powered external, make sure your computer has enough power to provide the external with a
continuous supply, otherwise, get one which will take mains supply.

[TrevorSP]

As a Microsoft Partner, I don't think this would work, although there are some alternatives you could try.........

The best typical speed for USB2 is 25MB/s and don't forget there is a lot of control packet as well as pure data sent down that line!
Compare that to say a modern SATA drive at about 60MB/s or SATA II at about 6x the SATA speed, then you see the problem.

USB is the slowest "interface" on most motherboards, it goes USB, USB2, Firewire, IDE, IDE FAST, SATA, SATA II etc
Then you have your PCI, PCI-E, PCI-E x16 etc, which at a push could be used for hard drives if you get the right cards, these are the ports
normally reserved for graphics cards etc,

Then you have the new solid state SATA II+ Drives which are even faster that SATA II.

What you might want to try if you are feeling really techie, is to split MS FSX into two parts, the data and the program, put the data which is
only accessed at the start of a flight on your external drive, and the prorgam that is put into memory and swapped in and out all the time
onto your C drive, that might help, but even then I have my doubts as I have at the back of my mind that not the whole DATA package is
transferred at the beginning of a flight, especially a long one, i think it takes the main part of the data and scenery files first, then "tricles"
the rest as the flight continues along, but it might still work, kind of, ish...........

I think your FSX would really struggle, but then you never stop learning, so if you try it and it works, please let me know :-)