Today’s tip is on creating hard links on Windows XP systems using the NTFS filesystem. Hard links allow you to create an alternate name for an existing file on the same partition.

The hard link itself is simply a reference to an existing file, and points the exact disk location of the original file without actually duplicating the file. The hard link you create can be in a different directory as the original file, or in the same directory using an alternate name, but it must reside on the same partition as the source file.

To create hard links in Windows XP, use the following command from a Command Prompt (Start/Run/cmd):

fsutil hardlink create new_link_name source_file

One of the benefits of creating hard links is that all hard links to a file, as well as the original file, need to be deleted in order to actually delete the original file from the filesystem. So, if you create a hard link to important.doc called hl_important.doc and the original file is deleted, it will still be available by accessing hl_important.doc. If you delete both, then the file will be removed from the filesystem. Keep in mind though that changes to either the original file or its hard links will affect each other. So, if you overwrite important.doc on accident, your hard links will also contain the same overwritten data.

Another obvious benefit is that you can create an easier to type “alias” for a deeply nested but often accessed file. To create a link to C:\Deeply\Nested\File.doc on the root of your C drive, simply use:

fsutil hardlink create “C:\newlink.doc” “C:\Deeply\Nested\File.doc”

If you have any questions on today’s tip, please leave comment.

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