[BugmanMD]

I have done default installation of FreeSpace Open and all mods to
C:\Games\Freespace 2

and have downloaded almost all the mods - a HUGE amount of data - about 38 GB in that directory.
How can I save this, for installation on a new hard drive, without going through downloading all this again?

Is everything I need in that main directory "Freespace 2?"
Can I just copy that entire "Freespace 2" directory to my new hard drive --- will that run the game correctly? or are there some other directories scattered around my original hard drive that also need to be transferred?

[ngld]

Which launcher do you use (Knossos, wxLauncher, or something else)?

Generally speaking, that folder should contain everything you need. Depending on how you installed the launcher, it can be outside that directory in which case the easiest way to transfer it would be reinstalling on the new computer (just to make sure that shortcuts, etc. are created correctly). You might also want to copy %AppData%\HardLightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen since that folder contains your save files.

[BugmanMD]

Yes, I'm using wxlauncher.
I guess that means I can reinstall the small wxlauncher program - that won't invoke any huge downloads.

thanks - forgot that the saved pilot files are in
%AppData%\HardLightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen
---------------------------

so....
hopefully if I save these two directories,
C:\games\Freespace 2
C:\users\"username"\AppData\roaming\HardlightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen

and restore them on new hard drive,
then reinstall the small wxlauncher program,
all will work, without me having to download 39GB of stuff again!
my Freespace 2 directory is now up to 43.5 GB, after installing the Aftermath mod tonight -- I'd like to avoid downloading all that stuff again.

Thanks for your help, and for any other ideas that might arise.

[m!m]

Just to confirm your conclusions, yes those two directories contain everything related to FSO. If you transfer those to your new hard drive then you will get (mostly) the same FSO you are used to. If you don't want to recreate your command line parameters then you also need to transfer "%APPDATA%\wxlauncher" to your new drive although I'm not sure how well wxLauncher handles already existing data so maybe only transfer that after installing wxLauncher on the new machine.

[Novachen]

If you don't want to recreate your command line parameters then you also need to transfer "%APPDATA%\wxlauncher" to your new drive although I'm not sure how well wxLauncher handles already existing data so maybe only transfer that after installing wxLauncher on the new machine.

Because i supplement pre configured wxLauncher settings in my easy-to-use installers, i can say, that wxLauncher has no trouble to read modified .inis right away at the first start. So there is no problem to copy-and-paste the %APPDATA%\wxlauncher folder, too.

[BugmanMD]

follow up question: 
Few days ago started looking at Knossos - which is really nice !   

Looks like all my mods that I installed from knossos went here:
C:\Games\FreespaceOpen

So if I backup that directory,
 and my pilots directory at
          %appdata%\HardLightProductions\FreeSpaceOpen\data\players

would that be enough for me to copy to a new hard drive and play them with KNOSSOS, without having to re-download all those mods again?
thanks to all 

[ngld]

Yes. In case you want to backup your Knossos settings as well, they're in %appdata%\Knossos.

[BugmanMD]

wow! you guys are the greatest - thank you very much!!
Need the dancing banana gif here!!