NTFS 5 Symlinks and HardPoints

[Trojan]

For Win2k and WinXP Only and For NTFS Partitions Only, This does not work on FAT/FAT32 File System.

Warning!!!: Do Not Delete Links Using Explorer, You will delete the Original data also.

Soft Links - Symbolic Links - Reparse/Junction Points.
For Folders only

NTFS junction point (JP) is a type of NTFS reparse point in the NTFS file system. It requires a NTFS 5.0 file system, which can be created (or converted from a FAT partition) under Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It can be used in a similar way to symbolic links - allowing you to create a link to a folder that is, for most intents and purposes, the same as the folder itself. This has many benefits over a windows shortcut (.lnk) file, such as allowing you to access files within the shortcut via explorer, the console, etc.

Examples of use

Program redirection

By setting a JP that points to a directory containing a particular version of a piece of software, you can easily add another version of the software and simply redirect the JP to point to the new version (can cause problems with some software, but works with quite a bit - experiment.)

Space saving

If you are running out of space on a drive, you can move those files to a new drive - but this can cause some problems with old links, configuration files, registry, etc. By creating a JP at the previous location (pointing to the new location) windows will treat it the same as if the directory still exists there, but you save HDD space.

Hard Links
For Files Only

In computing, a hard link is a reference, or pointer, to the physical data on a volume. On most file systems, all named files are hard links. The name associated with the file is simply a label that refers the operating system to the actual data. As such, more than one name can be associated with the same data. Though called by different names, any changes made will affect the actual data, regardless of how the file is called at a later time. Hard links can only refer to data that exists on the same file system.

The process of unlinking disassociates a name from the data on the volume. The data is still accessible as long as at least one link that points to it still exists. When the last link is removed, the space is considered free. A process ambiguously called undeleting allows the recreation of links to data that is no longer associated with a name. However, this process is not available on all systems and is often not reliable.

Read More and get a tool for symlinking and hardlinking Here

Read More at Shell-Shocked.