Latest update 220GB free on data drive not enough space

[DmitriKozlowsky]

Latest update 220GB free on data drive not enough space

Uhhmmm.. ED. Respectfully, your updates are getting excessively large.

After downloading, the updater quites with 'Insufficent space' error.

[MAXsenna]

Latest update 220GB free on data drive not enough space
Uhhmmm.. ED. Respectfully, your updates are getting excessively large.
After downloading, the updater quites with 'Insufficent space' error.

Six maps had updates. What do you expect?
Uninstall some of the maps, perform a full repair. Update. Then install the maps one by one.

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[CIWS]

What I would "expect" is to not keep creating downloads so large that folks have to uninstall other software just to update a game that isn't actually needing to update 120+ gigs worth of files.

[Tom Kazansky]

Would it be possible for ED not to update all of the files, especially maps, in one pass? It could be useful, if maps are updated one by one to reduce the total amount of free disk space needed, and the user would not have to do anything but waiting for the updater finishing the process like before.

Maybe as an option?

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

11 minutes ago, Tom Kazansky said:

Would it be possible for ED not to update all of the files, especially maps, in one pass? It could be useful, if maps are updated one by one to reduce the total amount of free disk space needed, and the user would not have to do anything but waiting for the updater finishing the process like before.

Maybe as an option?

 

[Esac_mirmidon]

Buy a bigger SSD.

Its the best investment for any PC.

[Tom Kazansky]

14 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

 

Thanks for the link.

Neither the "solution" of this thread does answer my question nor did ED (yet), though.

 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

19 minutes ago, Tom Kazansky said:

Neither the "solution" of this thread does answer my question nor did ED (yet), though.

It's the best you're going to get (for now). You have a few options:
- buy a larger drive;
- uninstall some maps
- use symbolic links

Bignewy said the team will look into options to make the process more efficient. But for now at least, there is no magical solution. Flight sims are demanding on hardware: we've known that since the '90s.

[Tom Kazansky]

23 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

It's the best you're going to get (for now). You have a few options:
- buy a larger drive;
- uninstall some maps
- use symbolic links

Bignewy said the team will look into options to make the process more efficient. But for now at least, there is no magical solution. Flight sims are demanding on hardware: we've known that since the '90s.

If ED will not change the way the maps are updated, with the growing number of maps (and growing sizes of maps), more and more users will run into problems with free space needed for an update.

Is it really so hard to implement an option to update the maps one by one*? In this case, the free disk space needed would not grow with the amount of maps but only with the size of one(!) map.

* to clarify: one by one within an automatic update. i.e. the user does not select the maps, of course.

Edited October 25 by Tom Kazansky

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

1 hour ago, Tom Kazansky said:

Is it really so hard to implement

I have no idea: you’d have to ask ED

But I have a sneaking suspicion it’s actually more complicated than you’d think.

[ASpiderfromMars]

I have this problem to. Also I have my DCS on Steam. And I dont see any option to avoid any maps before installing. I know once its installed and I open DCS there the option to choose maps. But first I have to install the entire content I own. Wich is 10 maps and 12 modules. It takes up almost 1 TB of storage. 

Maybe there is a simple way to work around this , but I dont know it yet. I have tried to buy an external drive but , it works so slow that it will take more than 2 days to download and store all those files on it. So I am stuck. I wanted to buy the new F4U corsair , but I cant , because there no more storage space left. DCS takes up my entire Harddisc.

I know I am far from being tech savy on computers so Its most likely my fault.

[MAXsenna]

28 minutes ago, ASpiderfromMars said:

Also I have my DCS on Steam. And I dont see any option to avoid any maps before installing

Doesn't the Steam client have options to disable the various DLCs? O wouldn't know with DCS.

29 minutes ago, ASpiderfromMars said:

. I have tried to buy an external drive but , it works so slow that it will take more than 2 days to download and store all those files on it.

Sounds really strange. What's the speed of the drive/USB port on it. And what type of USB port are you connecting to on the computer? 

Can't you install more more M2 cards in it? At least you should be able to install an internal SSD that will be adequate. 

Cheers! 

[ASpiderfromMars]

11 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

Doesn't the Steam client have options to disable the various DLCs? O wouldn't know with DCS.

Sounds really strange. What's the speed of the drive/USB port on it. And what type of USB port are you connecting to on the computer? 

Can't you install more more M2 cards in it? At least you should be able to install an internal SSD that will be adequate. 

Cheers! 

No when you install DCS from Steam, you dont get any options, to what content you want. Its all or nothing. I know that in the in game start menu you can then choose among them. I have not yet tried to intall, then open the ingame menu , select fewer maps/modules. Uninstall and then reinstall Steam DCS. But I am considering that. Currently I am looking at buying a bigger Internal Harddisc , but I have to find out if i can replace the original drive. 

 

My USB ports are 3.1 , I am not sure of speed of the External drive I just bought. Its a cheap one. Toshiba 2TB canvio basics portable storage device.

When I tried to install DCS on it , it just slowed down and the estimated time went up more than 48 hours. I gave up on it , and reinstalled on my internal drive , and it was done in 2-3 hours instead. As I stated in previous comment I am not that tech smart with computers.

Here is some info on my hardware.

TOPG-ULTIMATE-PRO, I9-9900K(F), 32G-RAM,RTX2080SUPER-8G,1TB-SSD-NVMe NZXT H500 BLACK

DISC2 storage 512GB SSD M2 NVMe (INTEL 660P).

 

Salute

 

[sleighzy]

2 hours ago, ASpiderfromMars said:

No when you install DCS from Steam, you dont get any options, to what content you want. Its all or nothing. I know that in the in game start menu you can then choose among them. I have not yet tried to intall, then open the ingame menu , select fewer maps/modules. Uninstall and then reinstall Steam DCS. But I am considering that. Currently I am looking at buying a bigger Internal Harddisc , but I have to find out if i can replace the original drive. 

 

My USB ports are 3.1 , I am not sure of speed of the External drive I just bought. Its a cheap one. Toshiba 2TB canvio basics portable storage device.

When I tried to install DCS on it , it just slowed down and the estimated time went up more than 48 hours. I gave up on it , and reinstalled on my internal drive , and it was done in 2-3 hours instead. As I stated in previous comment I am not that tech smart with computers.

Here is some info on my hardware.

TOPG-ULTIMATE-PRO, I9-9900K(F), 32G-RAM,RTX2080SUPER-8G,1TB-SSD-NVMe NZXT H500 BLACK

DISC2 storage 512GB SSD M2 NVMe (INTEL 660P).

 

Salute

 

Could switch to Standalone then if it removes that problem. Just one more reason. 

[buceador]

On 10/25/2025 at 12:55 PM, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

Flight sims are demanding on hardware: we've known that since the '90s.

I totally agree, and this is an old chestnut, however...

I have the Laminar product and both the MSFS recent FS products together on one SSD and they occupy, in total, approximately 90 GB, my DCS (only) SSD contains 1.2 TB.
I am aware that the MS products take advantage of downloading 'on the fly' but surely there must be a different / better way?

[Minsky]

28 minutes ago, buceador said:

I have the Laminar product and both the MSFS recent FS products together on one SSD and they occupy, in total, approximately 90 GB, my DCS (only) SSD contains 1.2 TB.

You're exaggerating or distorting the facts.

MSFS 2020 alone takes about 100 Gb - if you don't forget to count its AppData content. And that's only for the vanilla game, which many people would consider non-airworthy without World Updates, 3rd party scenery, and payware aircraft.

X-Plane eats up hundreds of gigabytes once you install all necessary libraries, add-ons and airports. And could creep into terabytes with orthos and Orbx/SimHanen stuff.

I don't disagree that DCS is bloated, and it doesn't get better. But comparing it at its peak footprint (1.2 Tb means you have most, if not all, maps and aircraft installed) with bare-bones version of another sim is incorrect.

29 minutes ago, buceador said:

I am aware that the MS products take advantage of downloading 'on the fly'

First and foremost, they take advantage of their enormous cloud infrastructure. Which ED could never afford without switching DCS to a subscription model.

[buceador]

1 hour ago, Minsky said:

You're exaggerating or distorting the facts.

I have the 'vanilla' installations  of the MS / Laminar products, that is true,  MS has an enormous cloud infrastructure, also true and yes I have all the maps but only FC and 3 FF aircraft despite these 'truths' my DCS installation is almost 10x bigger.  I do not believe file size optimisation is high on EDs to-do list.

[Minsky]

28 minutes ago, buceador said:

I do not believe file size optimisation is high on EDs to-do list.

This and also bloat. Vanilla DCS is 200 Gb, 30 Gb of which comes from liveries Heatblur shoved down our collective throat. That's almost two Caucasuses, one Persian Gulf or half of Syria. Neat, right?