Vortex mode of deployment

[Kiki981]

Ok. I've been using Vortex for my Skyrim SE, and it's better than it was NMM. It took time to get use to it, but now is good. Only problem I have with Vortex, that installed mods takes a lot of HD space. And I was reading somewhere, that this is due Vortex creates duplicates of mods (hardlink). So today I was checking settings in Vortex and I see that there are two ways od deployment: hardlink or move deployment. So I never changed this setting and had always on hardlink. So now I'd like to know, if I choose MOVE deployment, will this save space on my HD? Becouse if I understand correctly MOVE deployment doesn't create duplicate of mod, but moves mod directly to Skyrim main folder (like manually installing mod). If it's so, so do I need to reinstall mods which were installed with hardlink deployment and I later changed this setting to mpve deployment? Becouse I really would like to save space on my HD. And installing mods with VORTEX took a looooot of space (after finishing installing mods, I only had bout 5GB free space on my HD).

[AugustaCalidia]

Do not use move deployment, because hard links do not double the space utilized on a hard drive. This is a widely disseminated piece of misinformation about Vortex and hard links that has been addressed many times in these Vortex forums.

 

Hard links are not duplicates of mods. In Windows, hard links are directory entries that point to a specific clump of data occupying a specific space on a hard drive. This clump of data (file) can have multiple directory entries (hard links), each with a different name, but the clump still remains one and only one clump occupying a unique space on the hard drive.

 

When you deploy your mods with Vortex, using hard links, you are not reproducing the contents of the mod staging folder in the game data directory, but rather you are creating hard links that point to the unique data clumps that are your mods in the mod staging folder.

 

The myth about hard links doubling the hard drive space utilized probably arises from a well documented fact about Windows. That fact is that Windows, at a certain level of a hard drive's file structure, has trouble distinguishing between hard links and the data clumps to which they point and thus incorrectly reports as double the hard drive space actually used.

 

The bottom line: keep hard link deployment because Vortex mod installation consumes no more hard drive space than any other mod manager.

Edited October 11, 2021 by AugustaCalidia

[Kiki981]

So how can I save HDD space?

Ok, I was thinking of buying a new HDD, since on this one I have only 256GB of space. But this will take a while till I buy a new HDD. But is there any way that I can save space with Vortex? On my laptop I have only 3 main things installed: Windows, one other game and Skyrim. And with all 3 installed (Skyrim without mods) I have about 150GB free space. But After installing mods I only got about 5-7GB free HDD space. So I know, that mods themself don't take so much space (maby half of it or less). And I know that Vortex is having duplicates of mods in USER folder (in APPDATA I think). So is it safe to delete files - mods in APPDATA folder? Becouse that takes so much space.

[Guest deleted34304850]

can you tell me where these "duplicates" of mods are in your appdata folder?

reason i ask is, i have just run "Disk Savvy" on my appdata folder, and that doesn't show a single "duplicate" file - i.e. a complete copy of my mods that are installed and exist on another, separate hard disk.

 

I'd just like to know where to find all these duplicates. Thanks.

Edited October 11, 2021 by 1ae0bfb8

[rmm200]

Use a tool like WinDirStat to tell you where the space is being used.

Per se, Vortex does not use much space in AppData. Maybe you have Vortex downloads assigned there. Don't do that...

"Downloads" does not have to be on active storage. You can move that to a flash drive as needed.

And move the directory in Settings to some place easier to keep track of - like C:/Vortex/Downloads, if C: is the only drive you have.

[AugustaCalidia]

So how can I save HDD space?

Ok, I was thinking of buying a new HDD, since on this one I have only 256GB of space. But this will take a while till I buy a new HDD. But is there any way that I can save space with Vortex? On my laptop I have only 3 main things installed: Windows, one other game and Skyrim. And with all 3 installed (Skyrim without mods) I have about 150GB free space. But After installing mods I only got about 5-7GB free HDD space. So I know, that mods themself don't take so much space (maby half of it or less). And I know that Vortex is having duplicates of mods in USER folder (in APPDATA I think). So is it safe to delete files - mods in APPDATA folder? Becouse that takes so much space.

 

The "Mods" folder in AppData is your mod staging folder. Its contents are not duplicates of anything. Vortex needs only one set of mods per game, and therefore it creates one and only one mod staging folder for each game managed. Vortex is not now and has not ever been in the mod duplication business. By the way, the mod staging folder can be moved from AppData so long as it remains on the same drive partition as your game.

 

If you have only one hard drive, then you obviously cannot delete your mod staging folder, wherever it is on the drive. However, following rmm200's advice, you can save space by moving your "Downloads" folder to an external drive. Also, you can simply delete the "Downloads" folder. However, that is not recommended, because then the downloaded archives are not available when you want to reinstall any mods. In such a case, you would have to go back to Nexus Mods (or wherever) and re-download the required archives.

[Kiki981]

I have duplicates of mods under:

c:/Users/User (in my case krist)/AppData/Roaming/Vortex/downloads/skyrimse

In this folder is every mod that I have. And it seems like duplicate, since Vortex copies mods to Skyrim data folder. So it's like mods are in Skyrim data folder and also duplicates in AppData folder. Beecouse it's like, when I (let's say for example) install mod that is 1GB it will take 3GB of memory on HDD. And I know that mods are zipped so 1GB mod should take not 3 GB but arround 1,5 GB of memory.

[Guest deleted34304850]

some questions;

 

1. can you tell us where you have set your mod staging folder to be in vortex please?

 

2. if you have a device with a single, very small hard disk, why are you downloading and installing mods? or any program at all, for that matter?

 

you can buy external storage very cheaply these days. a simple pen drive could give you extra storage for your downloads (note not mods - actual download files - archives that contain the mod files) for literally pennies, or you could upload them to a cloud service for free and save yourself disk space that way.

Edited October 11, 2021 by 1ae0bfb8

[AugustaCalidia]

I have duplicates of mods under:

c:/Users/User (in my case krist)/AppData/Roaming/Vortex/downloads/skyrimse

In this folder is every mod that I have. And it seems like duplicate, since Vortex copies mods to Skyrim data folder. So it's like mods are in Skyrim data folder and also duplicates in AppData folder. Beecouse it's like, when I (let's say for example) install mod that is 1GB it will take 3GB of memory on HDD. And I know that mods are zipped so 1GB mod should take not 3 GB but arround 1,5 GB of memory.

 

1. The "skyrimse" folder to which you refer is your game's mod staging folder. It is not a folder full of duplicates. The "mods" you see in your game data folder are actually hard links to the mods in the mod staging folder. They are not mod duplicates. Nowhere are there any Skyrim SE mod duplicates on your computer unless you yourself have created them via copy and paste or some such thing.

 

2. Vortex does not copy mods to the game data folder. Rather Vortex creates hard links in the game data folder when mods are deployed. As I pointed out earlier, Windows routinely misreports the size of the hard links as identical to the size of the mods linked. Actually, however, these hard links occupy only a minute amount of space on your hard drive compared to the mods themselves.

 

3. It's clear that you have not fully understood my response to your original post. I suggest that you do some serious online research into hard links so that you can better understand what's going on.

 

EDIT: Substitute "contains" for "is" in the first sentence of my response.

Edited October 12, 2021 by AugustaCalidia

[Guest deleted34304850]

 

I have duplicates of mods under:

c:/Users/User (in my case krist)/AppData/Roaming/Vortex/downloads/skyrimse

In this folder is every mod that I have. And it seems like duplicate, since Vortex copies mods to Skyrim data folder. So it's like mods are in Skyrim data folder and also duplicates in AppData folder. Beecouse it's like, when I (let's say for example) install mod that is 1GB it will take 3GB of memory on HDD. And I know that mods are zipped so 1GB mod should take not 3 GB but arround 1,5 GB of memory.

 

The "skyrimse" folder to which you refer is your game's mod staging folder. It is not a folder full of duplicates. The "mods" you see in your game data folder are actually hard links to the mods in the mod staging folder. They are not mod duplicates. Nowhere are there any Skyrim SE mod duplicates on your computer unless you yourself have created them via copy and paste or some such thing.

 

in my questions above i had a question where i asked why this crucial piece of information had been ignored despite being in several concurrent posts.

i can understand missing it once, but it's in several posts, very clearly stated.

 

i truly have no idea how to make people understand the truth, rather than the nonsense they've picked up from christ knows where. i thought, by asking the OP to do a rudimentary analysis of their folders they'd find the truth themselves, but it seems to be an exercise in frustration.

 

in the end, i deleted my question. :(