Hard-Link on Anything About IT

Using Hard Links – Part Two

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:40:38 +0000

In my previous post Using hard Links – Part One I explained how Hard Links work. Today’s post is about using hard links with USMT 4.0 in a Windows XP to Windows 7 migration scenario.

A typical client migration scenario for an end user usually consists of the following processes:

User Data and Settings backup
Operating System Migration
Application Installation
User Data and Settings Restore

When migrating to previous versions of Windows in most cases IT support personnel first had to copy the users data of the machine to an external USB device or network drive, this depending on the volume of data could consume quite some time, then when the new OS was installed that same data had to be restored back to the local device. With the release of USMT 4.0 IT Engineers can now design a migration process that leverages hard link functionality, which means that there is no need anymore to copy the data off the device that is being migrated. You can imagine that this will significantly speed up the overall duration of migrating a client to Windows 7.

ToolTip: Hardlink Scanner

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:31:55 +0000

Here’s another nice utility I found today called Hard Link Scanner. Hard Link scanner is a command line tool that scans directories for hard linked files.

Download Hard Link Scanner from here

ToolTip: Link Shell Extension

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:53:49 +0000

Earlier this week I wrote about using Hard Links. By doing my research on this subject I came across the Link Shell Extension utility. As the name says the utility extends the shell with additional options to create hard and symbolic links. So if you don’t want to type commands at the command prompt to create a hard link, this utility is just right for you.

Additional very detailed documentation and utility download links can be found here. Also look at the History of the utility, the first version was released in 1999 but the most recent version dates from February 2010.

Using Hard Links – Part One

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:28:45 +0000

Nowadays we often hear the term Hard link in conjunction with Windows 7 deployments, this because the User State Migration Tool 4.0 aka USMT now provides support for hard links. The advantage of using hard links is that there is no explicit need to copy the data away from the machine before installing Windows 7. I plan to write about USMT 4.0 and the use of hard links in another post. The purpose of this article is to provide a practical understanding of what hard links are and how to create them.

What's New in the Windows User State Migration Tool

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:44:48 +0000

Read about what’s new in USMT (User State Migration Tool), download the whitepaper here