I've messed around with symbolic links quite a bit; in fact, my FSX installation is swappable with alternate installations that each include their own sets of configuration files. This is done through a series of symbolic links placed wherever FSX expects to find it's various directories that hold the config files, each pointing back to where I've placed the set of config folders within the FSX folder structure. It works very well for me, but it is quite complex - I've explained it in the past on various forums to the sound of crickets, lol.
Anyway, there's likely a range of solutions that would work for you and wouldn't necessarily require symbolic links, but they depend on how your current installation is setup.
If you already have FSX installed by itself on a separate drive, I would:
- install the new drive, formatting & create your partition, then assign it a random drive letter far down the alphabet
- copy your existing FSX install to the new drive, keeping the same folder structure intact
- assign the old drive to some other letter
- assign the new drive to the old drives previous letter
The end result would that if your FSX install was previously located at D:\FSX, it will be he exact same after you're done. However, if you have any other programs installed on the same drive, they too would need to be copied over so that they function properly as well.
If your FSX install is located on your C: drive, inside the existing program file structure:
- install your new drive, etc
- copy your FSX install to the new drive (make it D:\FSX, for example - the shorter the folder structure is, the easier it is to work with)
- delete the FSX folder from it's old location'
- create a symbolic link in the original installation location that points to the new location
To be honest though, if your scenario is the latter, I would personally bite the bullet and just reinstall. Adding symbolic links to your install has the potential for messing you up down the road, since you have to remain quite vigilant when installing any add on scenery or aircraft.
