Redirect folder on one HDD to a folder on another HDD

Question

This may be a simple question but I couldn't find any answers - folder redirection usually refers to redirecting profile folders only.

I have two hard drives in my laptop: C: (an SSD) and D: (a regular hard drive). I'd like to keep some files on C: but transparently access those files through the D: drive. For example, I'd like to have:

• C:\Source - this is where I want my physical files to be stored.

• D:\X_Drive - this folder is mapped to a virtual X: drive, using subst X: D:\X_Drive.

• X:\Source - when I go into this folder, I'd to see the contents of C:\Source.

Effectively, I'm looking for a way to map D:\X_Drive to C:\Source. How can I do this? I have Windows 7 Ultimate.

Solution

Junctions (also called symbolic links or reparse points) allows you to do that. You can use mklink in the command prompt (with /D for directory) to create them:

mklink /D C:\Source D:\Source

This will be transparent to applications - that is they will see it as a regular folder.

In Windows Vista/7, it is safe to delete C:\Source from Windows Explorer, or from the command prompt (del C:\Source) as it will only delete the link, without affecting the content of your target folder (D:\Source). However, in WinXP/2000 it would also delete the target content, so you should use rmdir, or the Sysinternal Junction utility in this case.

Comments

[Hasan Manzak]

For the asker, there is also a Wikipedia article you should check out when it comes directory deleting with junctions, here

[mtone]

@The_aLiEn Thanks, I wasn't sure if rmdir was safe in XP, and apparently it is.

[Chris Moschini]

To be clear, the mklink syntax for creating a new symbolic directory linked to an existing target, it's mklink /D (new path) (target path) like mklink /D C:\users\chris\.ssh C:\users\chris\dropbox\.ssh