Notes on NTFS

Hardlinks

In a Windows environment a hardlink is a reference or pointer to physical data on a NTFS storage volume.

All named files are hardlinks. The name associated with the file is simply a label that refers the operating system to the actual data. On NTFS volumes more than one name can be associated with the same data.

Though called by different names, any changes made will affect the actual data, regardless of how the file is called at a later time.

Hardlinks can only refer to data that exists on the same file system. The data is accessible as long as at least one link that points to it exists. When the last link is removed, the space is considered free.

Note

All hardlinks pointing to the same file also share the same security description (access permissions).

If more than one hardlink points to a file’s data, the space allocated by these files is just one time the file size (not including the space of the file master table), no matter how many hardlinks exists.

UltraSearch is able to detect the number of hardlinks pointing to one file data. The number of hardlinks which points to one file data is displayed in the Hardlinks column.