Not sure where to actually post this, as I know the official Tech Support forum probably won't cover this (as it is most likely "unsupported"), but basically I have a situation:
I have an 8-year old computer with like 4GB of RAM, AthlonXP Dual-Core 2.5Ghz or some such and it runs rather slow. FFXI is pretty much the only thing I use this computer for (I play with a family member, and I have this computer in the gaming room for playing this game exclusively).
I get FPS drops while just walking around in town, it takes forever to load up, etc.
So basically what I want to do, is I want to get a cheap upgrade (new mobo/RAM/CPU) which means I will have to reinstall Win7 (which I can easily do).
However, if I do that, that also means reinstalling FFXI which is... a very annoying process. I wish SE would update their downloadable installation, but sadly it appears to be a year+ out of date, and still requires the download of some 15,000 files (I had to do this about 7 months ago). It takes 30-40 minutes to install the game from the installation files, it takes an hour+ to check all 45,000+ files, and then it takes at least 2 maybe 3 hours to download the 15,000 files it needs to update.
Has anybody found a reliable method to just copy an installation of the game from another PC? I have two other PCs in the house that have FFXI installed and up-to-date, but I know that POL and FFXI dumps a bunch of registry keys, etc and that's why you can't just copy the POL folder and call it a day.