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Hard links - do they replce the deleted files?
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:59 am
by 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
Re: Hard links - do they replce the deleted files?
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:40 am
by 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.
Re: Hard links - do they replce the deleted files?
Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 8:39 am
by 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!
Re: Hard links - do they replce the deleted files?
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:11 am
by 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.
Re: Hard links - do they replce the deleted files?
Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 8:48 pm
by 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.