New Disk!
I wanted to practice instrument flying more, but didn’t want to use the plane (and instructor). They’re essential, but expensive. I can practice at home; that means a simulator. My wife and I run a Linux/MacOSX household, so MS Flight Sim was out. Besides Microsoft just laid off the Flight Sim developers. So X-Plane it is.
But the latest version of X-Plane uses 70 GBytes, mostly for scenery files. I had 4 GBytes free. That meant a new disk as well as the software and the controls.
After researching it, I ordered the new disk from MCETech.com. The disk came reasonably promptly, but the installation instructions weren’t included– despite their website saying they were. My first call resulted in one of their folks trying to email the docs. But I never received them as they were too big for email.
On my second call the tech pointed me to websites with some instructions on them and assured me that the instructions were also on the disk. The websites were useful, but the disk was not formatted so there was nothing on it. The tech also suggested a particular disk copy program too.
The websites were handy, but of course to read them required another computer while I had mine taken apart (there were many pages with lots of pictures). I pointed that out to MCETech, also pointed out that they had a website with an “installation instructions” section that lacked these installation instructions.
In the end the physical replacement of the disk was straightforward. I probably could have done this without the instructions as I’m reasonably handy. But for my main computer I wanted assurance. (I have precision screwdrivers in torx and phillips both. You’ll need them if you do this.) I got the system back tother and booted from my MacOSX installation DVD. I would rather copy the disk before I installed it, but that’s not how this worked.
I connected my old disk in the enclosure provided and ran the disk copy program suggested. And got a new set of problems. Twice this program just halted. The “time used” clock didn’t increment, and the disk busy light on the old disk (now my external) was locked on. No activity was happening.
The third time was the charm and I was able to get the disk copied successfully. But the next time I have to do this I expect to look elsewhere. I’m not happy with MCETech or with that third-party software either.
And remember the X-Plane flight sim? That’s how all this started. Well, I still don’t have the controls yet. But I do have disk space now! And the controls will be here soon.