Can the same file have two different names?

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is there a program that will search for these doubles

The short answer is no ... at least as far as I know. I did actually look for such a program a couple of years ago, as we were using hard links heavily for one of our applications within Microsoft. The problem is that there is no central database, so to speak, and no backwards pointer from the file contents to it's directory entries. The only way to locate all directory entries that point to the same file is to write a program that walks the entire hard drive, looking at *ALL* directory entries to see if they happen to point to the same file.

Leo

Is this possible on Win 2000 ? I tried but fsutil seems to be not there.

Yes and no. The operating system and NTFS supports it. However there are no command-line tools that come with Win2k.

There is a utility in 2003 Resouce Kit: Hlscan.exe

hmm.. I got a problem similar to what's mentioned above. I was deleting duplicate files from my Ipod and I came across a music file that exists in folder "." which is a subfolder of "Enigma" This folder (directory) doesn't seem to exist when I try to navigate to it via windows explorer, but through itunes I can reach the file AND it shows up as a legitimate sub-directory and file. I thought it was some weird windows glitch that dupicated the directory, and I tried to delete it. Thats when I discovered that this sub-directory and it's files actually point back to the parent directory. Deleting sub-directory "." deletes the original files. I'm perplexed on how to solve this so that directory "." no longer exists. I've read the info on HLscan.exe seems only to list the files. Anyone know how to delete the "other" files names

Is there any way to do this for directories, instead of files? E.g. I want "C:\My Documents" to be a hard link to "C:\Documents and Settings\Kevin J. Wangler\My Documents". I tried using the same command and it just said 'Error: Access is denied'. So, I assume this isn't possible, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks!

To answer my own question: Yes, it can be done! I just found a freeware tool called Winbolic Link which allows you to create symlinks (symbolic links), much like in *NIX. It's available at http://www.pearlmagik.com/winbolic/ (I'm not affiliated with PearlMagik or Winbolic Link; it's just something I found doing a Google search. I just tried it and created a C:\My Documents symlink, and it worked great.)

Is there a SAFE (or 'least dangerous') way to DEFRAGMENT a hard drive on which I have created a great deal of NTFS hard links? I understand that Windows Explorer does not 'know' whether it is looking at a 'hard link' of a file or not, and hence I am worried that the intricate system of hard links that I have built up within my hard drive will be damaged or lost completely when attempting to defragment the drive.

Alternatively, is there a way to 'back up' the NTFS master file table in such a way that if the hard link structure is damaged or destroyed by defragmenting the drive, that the back-up version of that original (pre-defragmentation) file table can be 'restored' somehow ?

I wish I could afford to simply back up the entire drive contents prior to defragmenting it (just in case of such an unwanted degradation of the hard-link structure), but unfortunately I have approximately a terabyte of information stored on my internal hard drives, and I literally cannot afford another terabyte of storage at this time !

Defragging shouldn't affect hardlinks.

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