blog: folder junctions

[nikos]

here's the comment area for today's article for backup chores
http://www.zabkat.com/blog/07Oct07.htm

[RickyF]

What a wonderful post. I learned something new and useful from this. Thank you.

[flapdragon]

This sounds really useful, though I haven't grasped the difference between these junctions and the common-or-garden shortcuts.  Perhaps in future versions they cd appear in a different colour by default to avoid the need for registry tinkering.  Incidentally, in the demo I take it that the second two folder junctions to be created in the backup folder (d drive and umeca74) should also have the J attribute in the appropriate column.
Harry

[nikos]

I haven't grasped the difference between these junctions and the common-or-garden shortcuts

the difference is that double-clicking on a junction is like entering the folder, whereas on shortcuts it isn't --- well in xplorer2 both do the same but other programs don't realize folder shortcuts as paths. For example, if you specify a path to a junction in notepad c:\organize\moreData it will be understood, but the equivalent path to a folder shortcut "c:\organize\a folder link.lnk" will not

the second two folder junctions to be created in the backup folder (d drive and umeca74) should also have the J attribute in the appropriate column

well done mr eagle-eyed
the answer to the missing Js is that I had to cheat. You see I didn't want to backup all the folders under e.g. "umeca74" so I created a normal folder and in that I hand-picked the subfolders I wanted to backup. In there you would see the J.

hopefully your filesystem organization will be better than mine and you wouldn't have to do such kludges

[flapdragon]

Thanks Nikos!

[morodan]

Sadly network targets are not supported, except through mapped drive names.

What could be the reason why I cannot use this feature even with mapped drive names? maybe OS (win2000 sp4)?
anyway, thanks for the useful hints.
dan

[nikos]

what's the error you are receiving? (check also help | last error)
in general mapped drives would suffer since sometimes the drive letters to the same network target may change so the junction won't work

[morodan]

(directly translated from Italian) "Junctions are supported only on NTFS partitions and only for local paths, Windows error = 6 Handle not valid".
Actually, all partitions are ntfs, and drive letters are consistently the same for the same network target.

[nikos]

i haven't done any testing for networks, so perhaps what i wrote is wrong but then again it could be just a w2000 limitation

vista has introduced symbolic links that could be the answer to network location problems. THat should be coming in the next xplorer2 update

[JDlugosz]

1) I keep the OS and programs on a partition separate from data, to aid backups.  For computers I set up for family members who will make heavy use of "My Documents", I simply make the top-level "Documents and Settings" a junction for a location on the data drive.

Similarly, I've helped people move data from a full drive to a new drive without the path names changing.

2) Before SATA, I had separate not-so-large but very fast SCSI drives, a fast ATA drive, and a cheap huge drive.  I could keep my files under a single tree, but move groups to different physical storage depending on need.  Actually, that's why Junctions were introduced in the first place.

3) Sometimes I use hard links to reduce the number of identical copies of a file.  Not that we really need the space anymore, but because it annoys me, or to ensure shared Segments when those dlls are actually used in memory.

---

In the beginning, I used "Junction.exe" from sysinternals.  More recently, I've used the built-in commands in 4NT once they became available.  I think I'd use them more if they were properly built-in to the explorer shell, so I'll be trying that feature on xplorer² when I run into potential uses again.

[nikos]

if you use junctions a lot you'll gain time adding a keyboard shortcut to x2's junction commands (Customize | Keyboard). They are way too deep in submenus as it is

[JDlugosz]

They are way too deep in submenus as it is

Why not put them on the drop target menu?  Normally I shift-drag items and get a drop menu asking if I want to copy or move or make a shortcut.  This should contain additional choices for making a hard link, junction, or symlink, as applicable.

--John

[nikos]

this could be added in a future version