Quick tip for saving 50+ GB on HDD!

[Spudknocker 241]

Hey guys!  Figured  I would share this I recently was running into space issues on my hard drive and it hit me I NEVER fly MiG-21's and MiG-23's they are simply sidewinder fodder for me so I went into my vast collection of migs and I deleted the Cockpit folders and INI's to turn them basically into AI only aircraft and i saved a TON of space on my HDD!

[+Coupi 4,343]

Hello Spud,

 

In order to manage HDD space, I use to deleting the cockpits of the bombers or other heavy planes after their AI modification.

 

I like to play with soviet fighters with their own pits... Stary have created beautiful "offices"!

 

And if the skins of the mods are bmp. files I go to jpeg. format.

 

Best regards,

 

Coupi.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Coupi

[+Menrva 4,125]

What Coupi said. Consider that flying certain heavy bombers can cause a CTD, especially if you order your flight to attack your target. I kept the amazing red cockpits by Stary. I remove cockpits which are inappropriate for some aircraft; I like to fly only the aircraft with their own cockpit, or with a cockpit very close to the RL counterpart (same plane, just inaccurate cockpit for a certain subvariant).

 

I went crazy and probably made the biggest mod folder ever, with an objective in mind; most stuff with less space on the HD. I converted everything I could to .jpeg (without loss of quality thanks to a good software) and I even went on to remove backup files, readmes, thumbnail caches, .out files and so on. I kept it clean and small. FYI, it contains eburger's expansion packs (most of them except the Mediterranean one atm), TSF2, Falklands War, ODS, Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan/India, Crimea, Southwest Africa, and other scenarios/terrains, plus lots of additional aircraft and yakarov's helos (including the recent ones yet to be included in some mods). Everything has been tweaked and reordered to remove unuseful copies of aircraft, etc. It has become some sort of anthology of Cold War and post-Cold War history. My mod folder spans from 1948 to 2018, seventy years of aerial warfare. It "only" weighs 126 GB on the HDD.

[+yakarov79 10,869]

Well thats my way, of having mods on my pc. Im focused on specific terrains, campaigns - so as for Vietnam and Israel  I'm not flying red side - no cockpits, weapons are limited realy to ones that was used/probably used - since im not flying red- weapons for red side only acording to aircrafts loadouts.ini.  - anyway i can add any weapon anytime. (in Vietnam mod i reduced weapons to around 380, also removing doubled weapons,unused skins etc.) In my ODS mod - only coalition aircrafts - again limited weapons. Other mods are organized similiar way.

And also im not using pits tha are inappropriate for aicrafts (or at least close to real im saving - if aircraft is wort os fun).

Alll expanision packs are great deal - but i don't agree with few things - im removing it. Many weapons are doubled, and sometimes there is lot of weapons "newer" than mod timeframe - so im deleting it.In ODS i reduced  number of weapons from more than 1000 to something below 500! Well ther is no use for weapons that were introduced after 1991..

In other words, my mod folders are realy modded.

So there is always way to save space, depending on your personal needs.

Anyway download sections on CA is for downloading - but it doesn't mean you must download everything...

[Fubar512 1,350]

HDDs have become so inexpensive, that PC enthusiasts don't really care about large game installs anymore.  I mean, one can purchase a decent 1 TB HDD for under $70 US, and 2 TB drives for not much more than that.

 

Many are moving to (or, are planning to move to) SSDs as their dedicated OS drives, and relocating all of their apps to larger 1 - 4 TB HDDs.  Even some gaming notebooks have been going this route for the last couple of years.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Fubar512

[Snailman 517]

I have a 17.3" ASUS Notebook from 2013 (bought in "peaceful" Ukraine)...  Originally costed 6000 UAH (then) about 750$.   It has two 1 TB HDDs (48$ each), and I have just bought a 120GB SSD (also about 45$) for system AND  SF2+Addons.  I want to try out the loading time from SSD - I do such modding I am hindered by loading time... hehe)

 

I also replaced the LCD screen from 1600x900  to Full HD 1920x1080.  Considering all these upgrades (and that I own a single HDD NAS with another 1TB HDD) I can say space is enough   I did not pay a fortune  and also my 3yo. notebook is still keeping a value of 1000$ (=two monthwages for me). In this category there are only ROG gaming notebooks avilable for 2000-4000$

[+russouk2004 6,958]

I dont bother saving space/....I just got extra drives...3x ssd and 1x hdd ....lol   but thats me   :)

[jeanba 1,919]

Hey guys!  Figured  I would share this I recently was running into space issues on my hard drive and it hit me I NEVER fly MiG-21's and MiG-23's they are simply sidewinder fodder for me so I went into my vast collection of migs and I deleted the Cockpit folders and INI's to turn them basically into AI only aircraft and i saved a TON of space on my HDD!

I often fly Migs.

I especially love flying Mig21 PF over North Vietnam (though I would not like to be there in reality)

[tiopilotos 2,519]

I think that deleting unnecessary hi res skins also helps.

 

There are some aircraft packs with numerous hi res skins. In many cases there are squadron skins which are exactly the same, so you can delete many of them to save HDD space. 

[Spudknocker 241]

Ya I totally understand that people love flying migs haha!  My point was that if there are certain aircraft you dont fly such as B-52's and C-47's or 130's why have those cockpits sitting around taking up space... I also find the smaller and more compact my mod folders are the better the game runs and loading times seem to be reduced as well... 

[jeanba 1,919]

Actually, one popint is to try as har as possible to replace bmp with jpeg