6th time and I'am out

forgot

I forgot to say my aircraft and scenery files that have changed to RAR files are only on my CD's that I have saved them on, the files except for my gauges files are all the standard files that you get with FS9 in the root folder.
 
Installing from CD in this case will not make any difference. Because somehow the file associations of the Operating System itself were changed. So W7 now simply is set to open .gau files with WinZip.

If the .gau is not listed in the it may be a bit more interesting. You now have real .zip files and .gau files both showing the same icon. And you only want to change the association for the .gau files.
The alternative method on the linked site should do that but you have to be sure you are really on a .gau file when you right click.

Alternatively, you can also Right click the file whose association you want to change > Properties > General tab > Type Of File > Change > Choose a program from the list or recommended or other programs or else click Browse to select one.

Short of taking the PC to the shop do you have any friends or family around that may be a little more savvy in the ways of the OS that could help you with this on site ??

Cheers
Stefan
 
better leave it alone

Although ,I'd like to get back to the stock files ,I can seem so far to use the RAR program ,since I don't want to make things worse.
I either extract from the RAR file to either the root folder of FS9 or cut and past the RAR to ,say 'My Downloads where it's not cluttered with other stuff and click extract to here which opens the folder into normal files which I cut and past where they belong.
It's a bit more time consuming but so far it's worked.
 
Just had a look myself and the issue is that .gau files normally have no program association. Now that it has one it seems to be stuck that way. All I can see off hand is to pick any other program but zip.

But here is another idea. When you double click a real zip file what window opens for you ??

One that is called WinZip in the top left corner ???
If yes then there may be another way to skin the cat.

Let me know and we go from there if you want.

Stefan
 
I'm still wondering whether it's the .cab or the .gau extension that's been affected. There is one way to tell for sure if the .gau extension has had a program association assigned, but it involves going into the registry. Let me know if you want details.
 
I've changed zip to RAR

As I said ,since I've found RAR zip files are easier to work with ,I've managed to change all the Winzip files in my gauges folder to RAR.zip files.They are all cab files.
If I double click on one of them it just opens in the RAR extraction program and the files are normal.
Like wise if I click the main gauges file,(which still looks normal) it opens up all the gauges ,full page, on the right side of the root tree.
Now all these gauge file are the regular gauges files, it's only in the fs9 root tree(where I install gauges, that they are RAR zip cab files.
I hope this makes sense.
 
Y'know with all this poking around in windows, I'm sure there are a few of us out here that really feel for
Mr Hurricane in this predicament.
Is there not a member local to his location, that could pop round and assist if he wanted?

I would, if it were not for that little pond in the way!

Ttfn

Pete
 
couldn't figure out a way

I couldn't figure out a way to send you a screenshot, and I;am kinda scared to mess around with the registry.
There is no one anywhere near me to help ,so I guess I'll just muddel through.
I can try to describe what the page looks like when I open to almost full screen, normally there is just the Windows Explorer tree along the left side of the page.I go to" computer/c/Microsoft Flight 2004" click and it opens the FS9 root tree, from here I put one of my recovery disks in the CD/dvd drive and open that on the righthand side of the page.From the cd I can pick somthing to install ,cut and past it to my downloade's just so I have room to work.Then I can open the RAR file" to here" and that extracts the RAR file to my downloads and I can put everything where it belongs.
Now what I ment about opening the Gauges folder to almost full page is I can go to Windows Explorer open the FS9 folder then open gauges which are now RAR zip cab files (since I changed them from WinZip files)
If I double click Gauges it opens the full Gauge file in the righthand pane and here almost all the gauge files are just like they would normally be like.I have some RAR files but thats normal(They would be Winzip if I haden't changed them).
I know this is had to understand , and I do thank all of you for trying to help,but like Tom said ,somthing has changed the gauge files from Gau. to an outside program ,in this case Winzip,I could change it to RAR cab files which FS9 seems to be able to read but not back to the oridginal gau. files.
 
To verify filetypes:

1. Click the Start button to open that menu. Your cursor should be blinking in the "Search programs and files" box at the bottom.
2. Type folder options into that field, then click the Folder Options choice under Control Panel near the top.
3. Click the View tab in the dialog that you just opened.
4. Uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" option, then click Apply and OK

As long as the files that were once cabs still have *.cab at the end and the *.gau files are still correct, then your Sim should still work correctly. If either one now has a different extension, there is a way to fix that too. It's a little bit advanced, but if I can do it, anyone can.
 
been there done that

Already did that once before so it is already unchecked.
As I said my gauge files in the window's explorer root tree are all RAR cab files which FS9 recognizes.If you expand the gauges file ,then the gauges files look like they always have,regular Gau. files.
It takes a little longer to install things ,but so far it's working.(famous last words) Thanks Tom
 
Hi Hurricane, I had similar problems with both FS9 and FSX in Vista. Got round it by swapping to Win 7. {Then my hd died some months later in an unrelated incident. Like you I could not bring myself to re-installing the 60gb of data I had for FS9 till now over 3 years later), But Vista was a pain from the start. Try Win 7.I am sticking with win 7 and not going to 8.Hate the look of 8. Buddha13
 
Thought I might add a few comments to Hurricane's situation.

I can relate to his experiences. After many years of running FS9 under Windows XP, I'm now moving to a new computer running Windows 8 and have had nothing but a series of setbacks.

My 1st new computer arrived about a month ago. After two days of getting familiar with the new machine, I encountered a corrupted OS. After waiting for discs from the vendor and reinstalling the OS, the technician discovered a hardware issue. A week after it arrived the vendor agreed to exchange the new computer with another.

My exchange computer arrived earlier this month, so I had to reinstall all my apps all over again before shipping out the 1st computer. All the while my older XP was setup behind me on a table in my office. After getting comfortable with everything including my FS9 install, the older computer was boxed up and ready for donation and I was getting comfortable with operating FS9 under Windows 8 and setting up all my new hardware, graphics card, etc.

Then on Tuesday this week I got hit with a virus I picked up on a legitimate site. Apparently the Windows Defender did nothing to stop it, and the OS was toast. I spent most of my day talking with Tech Support and again reinstalling the OS followed by a reinstall of everything else including FS9. What a mess.

Anyways, I'm pretty gun shy of working on the new machine with Windows 8 despite my years of working on other computers and applications. It's been a frustrating experience, similar to what Hurricane is experiencing. But I'm not giving up, and can admit that I'm learning a lot more than I expected.

FS9 now looks great and runs great on my new machine. This morning in another post SOH members helped me solve a compass problem. I only have one payware aircraft that is not installing properly, but its only a matter of time before I figure things out.

Hope you get things ironed out, Hurricane.
 
So far so good

I know I'am going to jinx myself by saying this ,but so far so good. My gauges folder is still mostly RAR files as are my files on my backup disks ,but I've worked around it.I now have 12 disks of a total of 79.That sounds worse than it is ,because there are a lot of duplicate files on the disks.
As for what I'am doing different ,is made my main install from a different set of disks I bought at Walmart quite some time ago. Also I've stopped deleting the Flight Simulator files from my documents.Also if I feel like installing a lot ,I'll disable my virus scanner (AVG temporaraly)
So far the only thing thats happened is I lost my weather folder ,but having gone through this before I did a file search and found it under Program files X 86.
I now have backups of my weather files, addon scenery files, and effects and gauges files all of which I've lost before this install.
So keep your fingers crossed, I'll let you know if it goes belly up or I get eveything back.
It's good to know I'am not the only one who has problems.
 
I am beginning to sound like a broken record maybe but I'll say it again all the same. There are really only two options for those of us who do invest a lot into building a personalized FS installation.

1. Buy stock in your favorite brand of liquor or beer and be prepared to buy lots of that product while spending many hours piecing back together FS after something went belly up. Hardware, software or warm-ware (user) will inevitably sooner or later nuke it.

2. Buy a good backup software and hardware package that can store and re-store the ENTIRE PC in one session with nothing more than a few mouse clicks.
There are several out there but I would recommend talking to a local expert about his preference if you think you might need help one way or the other with the task.

I have mentioned the software I use at other such occasions but do a bit of research while you still can. Home-made solutions such as putting everything on DVDs or CDs or external drives manually is better than nothing of course but can't compete with a tested package.

Some of them might require a clean OS install before they can re-store the saved image. Some are literally able to run from a plugged in bootable USB drive and rebuild the entire PC with nothing more than a key stroke. That is what I have.
I do mess around in my three FS installs quite a bit. Sometimes literally to try and see what someone else might have done to bring their system to a halt so I can help them get up and running again. I do have a separate FS install just for testing....nothing but what came on the CDs in that one. So if it gets messed up I manually copy in an image from a backup and it is up and running again..........usually. But on a couple of occasions a change to that test-FS caused all other FS installs to go dark as well because a system .dll file got changed.

In that case I run http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/backup.htm and after a beer or two while it copies the contents of the .sna file back to the HD I am back up and running as if nothing happened....well minus a few days or weeks since the last .sna file was created.

Cheers
Stefan
 
Sunny9850 said:
I am beginning to sound like a broken record maybe but I'll say it again all the same. There are really only two options for those of us who do invest a lot into building a personalized FS installation.

1. Buy stock in your favorite brand of liquor or beer and be prepared to buy lots of that product while spending many hours piecing back together FS after something went belly up. Hardware, software or warm-ware (user) will inevitably sooner or later nuke it.

2. Buy a good backup software and hardware package that can store and re-store the ENTIRE PC in one session with nothing more than a few mouse clicks.
There are several out there but I would recommend talking to a local expert about his preference if you think you might need help one way or the other with the task.

I have mentioned the software I use at other such occasions but do a bit of research while you still can. Home-made solutions such as putting everything on DVDs or CDs or external drives manually is better than nothing of course but can't compete with a tested package.

Some of them might require a clean OS install before they can re-store the saved image. Some are literally able to run from a plugged in bootable USB drive and rebuild the entire PC with nothing more than a key stroke. That is what I have.
I do mess around in my three FS installs quite a bit. Sometimes literally to try and see what someone else might have done to bring their system to a halt so I can help them get up and running again. I do have a separate FS install just for testing....nothing but what came on the CDs in that one. So if it gets messed up I manually copy in an image from a backup and it is up and running again..........usually. But on a couple of occasions a change to that test-FS caused all other FS installs to go dark as well because a system .dll file got changed.

In that case I run http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/backup.htm and after a beer or two while it copies the contents of the .sna file back to the HD I am back up and running as if nothing happened....well minus a few days or weeks since the last .sna file was created.

Cheers
Stefan
Click to expand...
I failed to mention in my post that I had everything backed up on an external drive. I only made the mistake of moving some payware aircraft into the install vs. leaving a full copy of the aircraft folders on the external drive, so I lost those folders along with some e-mails and a few new documents on the desktop. Fortunately, all the original FS9 installs are on CD's, so I was able to reinstall all that was lost - except for one as the CD file was corrupt. I manually control what is backed up, and am looking for a more 'automatic' program to use.
 
All good advice

All your advice is good, I had all my flight sims backed up to my external HD, unfortunally three out of 6 wouldn't run because of loss of dll files. But the other three are fine.Am looking at different back up systems now.
On disk 14 now, so knock on wood.
 
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