Hard links - do they replce the deleted files?

[megabuff]

Hi forum

if i select "create hardlinks" does that then cause all the selected files to be moved/deleted and replaced by links that are a shortcut to the remaining, undeleted file?

my intent was to move or delete the duplicate files but then i was reading about hardlinks and i thought it would do what i suggested above, but the duplicates are still there, and so i dont really know what it acheived.

i have read the tutorial and i couldnt get understanding form it.


thanks for you patience and help

[therube]

A hardlink would remove the "duplicated" space used, but the links to the file would remain.

Code: Select all

c:/file1
c:/tmp/file1
c:/tmp/work/file1

If file1 were all the same content, say 1 MB each, the three files would occupy 3 MB of disk space.

If you created links to the three, then the "file" would still exist (have a reference) to its existing locations, though would only occupy 1 MB of disk space.


(Links of various types I always understood & was comfortable with in UNIX. On the Windows end, they scare me more then anything, though I have dabbled with them, I am not really comfortable.)

Good overview, Link Shell Extension.

[megabuff]

thanks for your reply.

that is what i expected to happen, however it was supposed to get rid of 35 gb of files, but the size of the folders did not change!

[DigitalVolcano]

I think the reported size of the folders still show the total file sizes, even though they are hardlinked. The amount of space used on the disk should go down though.

[RHH1095]

I see the word "think" and "should". Can you explain what Hard-Links actual do on a Windows 10 computer.

I read in another post that DV will add (in release 5.0) Shortcuts to the delete/replace option. But many duplicates are business / organizational related. i.e. folder of each customer with all file ever sent to that specific customer. It would be nice to replace the 20MB brochure in each customer folder with a link to a single file/copy of that brochure.