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Windows deperately needs Symlinks

B

Binford

n00b
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
24
So I did my 3 year PC upgrade. My new system consists of:

Mountain Mods H20 case with Corsair 850W PSU
ASUS Rampge III Extreme X58 motherboard
Intel i7 560 OC'ed to 4.26 Ghz/core with a Watrercooling setup
XFX Radeon 5970 Black Edition
6G Corsair Dominator RAM
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD
2 300 GB WD Raptors in a RAID 0

This is just a game system. I do real computing (i.e. everything but gaming) on my Mac or Linux systems. Which is where I discovered how horrible WIndows is for trying to use two Volumes for a system.

I wanted to make the SSD the bot drive/Windows drive and then make the \USERS, \Program Files (and the equivalent and new? Program Files X86 directories), as well as misc stuff be on the RAID 0. Not always keeping up with the latest Windows tech, I just assumed there was something equivalent to *IX's symlinks. Turns out I am wrong.

So, into the Registry I go. :( Whoever invented this and thought it was a good idea - I hope they die a long slow horrible death. Anyway, under:

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]
Value Name: CommonFilesDir, ProgramFilesDir

There's some values to be set, which I have tried to change and set to use the Raid drive, but this can cause some weird problems - not the least of which is you still end up with things installed under C;\Program Files\BLAH and the D:\Program Files\BLAH... Never mind getting my main user configured etrc.. There's a few other places under the registry for changing this, but it seems like there should be a simpler easier way to integrate a SSD into a Windows setup with an second Data drive (whether that's a stand alone HDD or a RAID setup).

Since I know you [H] folks are much more in tune with this, am I correct in thinking this sucks? Has someone fixed it? Has anybody published a good SSD / HDD integration Guide? A google didn't turn one up AFAICT.

Thanks!
 
Windows has had them for a long time. Users can create them since Vista, and I read that XP will still honor them but has no APIs to create them.

Junction points have been around for a very long time and behave similarly, but true symlinks exist too.

Go look at "Link Shell Extension"
 
+1 on recommending LSE. It's perfect for dealing with junction points on NTFS volumes.

But bear in mind that windows 7 makes extensive use of them. And it's not a trivial process to move stuff like the Users directories. It's MUCH harder than it ought to be.

SSD for just the OS and HD for 'everything else' is not well managed in Windows post-XP.
 
Hmm, Junction has been around since before Windows Vista was launched, the guy who created it was the same one responsible for the now defunct Sysinternals website (well, the site still redirects to M$'s sysinternals page, since the guy was actually hired my Microsoft) and all of the other goodies.

Yes, symlinks are NOT actually easy to use in Windows, but they have been around since W2K, so they're not exactly "new" or "absent".

Just a quick note to add to all the great stuff the other guys have already said.
 
I use junctions in the following scenario:

1)Install win to C:\ for family (SSD). Keep all profiles via junction on slower drive, but all apps will be on C:\.

2)Create second partition with minimal ubuntu install. Grub(2) takes over boot loader.

3) Set default boot to win. Rename Ubuntu to "restore system" option. While in ubuntu, dd/gz the install disk from boot sector on up and store on 2nd disk.

4) After it's done, burn to dvd-r (sometimes need DL). Write quick shell script and stick on dekstop to a) reset ssd to new state (using hdparm) b) restore partition C:\.

5) With their profiles on junction points, they can reinstall their system via clicking the shell script and their profiles are safely on another physical disk.

Since I've set this up for my 2 brothers (who usually need 2-3 reinstalls a year), they don't call me anymore.

If you'd prefer a life/usb stick, you can probably get an 8G-16G usb stick and use "unetbootin" to create an ubuntu live stick. Boot to CD, and use gparted to shring the partition down to 1GB. Then make a 2nd partition & store the dd image & shell script there.
 
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