Vortex triples the mods

[Hiskarian]

hello everyone first apologize for google translate english, I have a problem with vortex since when I install the mods I realized that vortex stores 3 times that is:

In my case Skyrim

A route is in:

C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\downloads\skyrim (do not download directly with vortex)

The other in:

C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\skyrim\mods

plus the mods that are installed in the skyrim folder

and the manual download mods, in total they would be a total of 4 copies but 3 when deleting the downloaded mods

Now comes my question what can I do to make vortex just install and not keep extra copies

[AugustaCalidia]

Vortex does not triple mods and keep extra copies. In the Downloads folder it stores the downloaded archives. In the Mod Staging Folder it stores the installed mods (the expanded archives). In the game data folder it places hard links that mirror the installed mods in the Mod Staging Folder. The hard links are not mods but links to installed mods. The hard links tell your game where to look for installed mods. (Hard links are a Windows feature. You may want to do a google search to better understand what they are and how they function.) Therefore you have only one set of mods and only one set of archives, neither of which is a copy of the other. If you want to save space, you can delete the archives, once the mods are installed. However, if you ever want to reinstall a mod, then you will need its archive.

[HeyYou]

Vortex does not triple mods and keep extra copies. In the Downloads folder it stores the downloaded archives. In the Mod Staging Folder it stores the installed mods (the expanded archives). In the game data folder it places hard links that mirror the installed mods in the Mod Staging Folder. The hard links are not mods but links to installed mods. The hard links tell your game where to look for installed mods. (Hard links are a Windows feature. You may want to do a google search to better understand what they are and how they function.) Therefore you have only one set of mods and only one set of archives, neither of which is a copy of the other. If you want to save space, you can delete the archives, once the mods are installed. However, if you ever want to reinstall a mod, then you will need its archive.

And windows doesn't handle calculating space very well. So far as windows is concerned, those hard links ARE the mod files...... so it essentially doubles the the 'apparent' amount of space taken up. I have a few windows machines at work, that simply do not report correct folder size in any event. Look at folder properties, it reports one size, copy the folder elsewhere, and the amount of data windows thinks it is copying/moving bears little or no resemblance to the folder size previously reported..... (windows 10)

[AugustaCalidia]

@HeyYou

 

Thank you for pointing out how Windows incorrectly calculates file/folder size when dealing with hard links. I neglected to include that very important piece of information in my post.

 

Actually Windows (Windows 10 in my case) is inconsistent in its reporting. Here's a concrete example. Windows 10 reports that my Fallout NV game data folder size is 21.6 GB before purging (vanilla assets plus mods). After purging, Windows 10 reports that my Fallout NV game data folder size is 9.1 GB (vanilla assets only). However, when I look at system disk size, Windows 10 correctly reports 778 GB before purging and 778 GB after purging. What happened to the 12.5 GB difference in the size of the game data folder? The answer is that nothing happened to it because it never existed in the first place. Windows 10 mistakenly counted the hard links as mods and therefore incorrectly assigned the size of the Fallout NV mod staging folder to the hard links themselves.

[Hiskarian]

Vortex does not triple mods and keep extra copies. In the Downloads folder it stores the downloaded archives. In the Mod Staging Folder it stores the installed mods (the expanded archives). In the game data folder it places hard links that mirror the installed mods in the Mod Staging Folder. The hard links are not mods but links to installed mods. The hard links tell your game where to look for installed mods. (Hard links are a Windows feature. You may want to do a google search to better understand what they are and how they function.) Therefore you have only one set of mods and only one set of archives, neither of which is a copy of the other. If you want to save space, you can delete the archives, once the mods are installed. However, if you ever want to reinstall a mod, then you will need its archive.

once I deleted the vortex files I kept throwing errors and I had to reinstall it

Edited September 4, 2019 by Hiskarian

[rmm200]

Moving a Windows 10 directory containing hard links is problematic.

You can have deep copies, where Windows follows the link and copies the actual file (big bump in size),

and you can have shallow copies, where only the link is copied.

Bottom line: If you are set on copying your game directory somewhere, use Vortex Purge first, to remove the hard links.

[AugustaCalidia]

once I deleted the vortex files I kept throwing errors and I had to reinstall it

 

What Vortex files did you delete? My suggestion for saving space was to delete archives, which would not have created Vortex and/or game errors. If you deleted more than that then of course you will get errors. Do you know the difference between an archive and an installed mod?

Edited September 4, 2019 by Augusta Calidia

[Hiskarian]

 

once I deleted the vortex files I kept throwing errors and I had to reinstall it

 

What Vortex files did you delete? My suggestion for saving space was to delete archives, which would not have created Vortex and/or game errors. If you deleted more than that then of course you will get errors. Do you know the difference between an archive and an installed mod?

 

directly delete the folder

C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\skyrim\mods

 

since I had a pretty decent skyrim that I wasn't going to play much then I thought they would still be installed in the skyrim directory

[HadToRegister]

 

 

once I deleted the vortex files I kept throwing errors and I had to reinstall it

 

What Vortex files did you delete? My suggestion for saving space was to delete archives, which would not have created Vortex and/or game errors. If you deleted more than that then of course you will get errors. Do you know the difference between an archive and an installed mod?

 

directly delete the folder

C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\skyrim\mods

 

since I had a pretty decent skyrim that I wasn't going to play much then I thought they would still be installed in the skyrim directory

 

 

 

You're going to be back in here asking where your mods went...

 

Those are the ARCHIVES you downloaded from the Nexus.

THEN, when you install them, Vortex extracts the ARCHIVE, into the Mod Staging Folder, where Vortex then makes Virtual Links from the mod in the mod staging Folder, to the Game Directory Folder.

 

What you've done, is deleted ALL of your downloaded mod archives, so if you uninstall the mod, it will no longer exist on your hard drive ever want to install them again, you'll have to download them again, but Vortex will complain, because you deleted the entire Directory, and Vortex won't be able to find it.

[AugustaCalidia]

 

 

once I deleted the vortex files I kept throwing errors and I had to reinstall it

 

What Vortex files did you delete? My suggestion for saving space was to delete archives, which would not have created Vortex and/or game errors. If you deleted more than that then of course you will get errors. Do you know the difference between an archive and an installed mod?

 

directly delete the folder

C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Vortex\skyrim\mods

 

since I had a pretty decent skyrim that I wasn't going to play much then I thought they would still be installed in the skyrim directory

 

 

You did more that delete your archives, which is all I suggested you do to save space. Rather, you deleted the mod staging folder where your installed mods are located. Once you did that, you severed your game data folder hard links, as HadToRegister pointed out. When that happens, it's modded game over.