How to move files/folders and leave a shortcut in its place.
To free space on the main SSD drive, I need to select and move a number of data files and folders (based on a search criteria like older than 3 years or larger than 100mb) to an archive drive. The catch is to leave behind a shortcut to the new location, so folks don't have to search for their stuff..
Basically, you'd need hardlinks to each file. You can do it manually via MKLINK or w/ a program, e.g. SpaceObServer https://www.jam-software.com/spaceobserver/deduplicate_files.shtml
ASKER
@NVIT
Hard links won't work, as the files will be moved to a different drive on the network.
@Arnold
The folks are on a local network. They use a shared directory on a central SSD drive for their client data (docs, videos, pics, PDFs, etc.). Each client has a folder, they have many hundreds of clients. SSD space is expensive and limited, so the idea is to move less used older and/or larger files to a large hard drive (also on the network) and leave a shortcut to the new location in the original home of the moved file. That way the users don't need to guess what was moved or where it went. Some of the videos can take a lot of space, so we would like to get any not accessed in the last year or two moved off the SSD.
Hard links won't work, as the files will be moved to a different drive on the network.
@Arnold
The folks are on a local network. They use a shared directory on a central SSD drive for their client data (docs, videos, pics, PDFs, etc.). Each client has a folder, they have many hundreds of clients. SSD space is expensive and limited, so the idea is to move less used older and/or larger files to a large hard drive (also on the network) and leave a shortcut to the new location in the original home of the moved file. That way the users don't need to guess what was moved or where it went. Some of the videos can take a lot of space, so we would like to get any not accessed in the last year or two moved off the SSD.
I've used shortcut.exe, which works in Windows 10
https://www.optimumx.com/downloads.html#Shortcut
https://ss64.com/nt/shortcut.html
shortcut.exe /f:d:\folder\testfile.lnk /a:c /t:z:\network\folder\testf
Another similar one is nircmd from Nirsoft? You can use the shortcut option: https://nircmd.nirsoft.net/shortcut.html
https://www.optimumx.com/downloads.html#Shortcut
https://ss64.com/nt/shortcut.html
shortcut.exe /f:d:\folder\testfile.lnk /a:c /t:z:\network\folder\testf
Another similar one is nircmd from Nirsoft? You can use the shortcut option: https://nircmd.nirsoft.net/shortcut.html
Rather than having 100's of shortcuts for your individual Files, I'd move the whole directory & create a link to that Directory. Otherwise you just create a nightmare which isn't manageable in the long run.
ASKER
@rindi
That makes more sense to me too. I can select the directories, move them, then leave shortcuts in their place.
@NIVIT
I've heard of the Nirsoft cmd, I'll check out the other links too. Was sort of hoping not to have to create an elaborate script, but I have not found any utility or tool to do this.
That makes more sense to me too. I can select the directories, move them, then leave shortcuts in their place.
@NIVIT
I've heard of the Nirsoft cmd, I'll check out the other links too. Was sort of hoping not to have to create an elaborate script, but I have not found any utility or tool to do this.
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Are you talking about creating a shortcut for each file being moved?