Hardlinks and Drive Backups

[ComZiz]

I just moved all my old drive contents to a new drive...

Turns out Vortex was using 40gbs worth of hardlinks, since the deployement method was set to that. Hence I noticed that my copied files were a lot bigger.

What would happen at this point if I change the deployment method now, to "Move (Experimenta)

Also why is this method is still experimental, isn't safe to use?

Finally, how would I get back my 40gbs back from my new SSD, since the hard links were coppied as well.... Should I purge mods and redeploy? (would that brake any order or settings?)

[AugustaCalidia]

Did you purge the hardlinks before you copied?

[showler]

Windows treats hardlinks as real files during a copy procedure.  Purging your mods would have temporarily removed the hardlinks and avoided the problem.

Under normal operation the hardlinks take up a tiny amount of space.

[ComZiz]

On 11/28/2023 at 10:46 PM, AugustaCalidia said:

Did you purge the hardlinks before you copied?

No I didn't =( I didn't even know that Vortex had hardlinks, I figured it out after thorough investigation.

On 11/28/2023 at 11:33 PM, showler said:

Windows treats hardlinks as real files during a copy procedure.  Purging your mods would have temporarily removed the hardlinks and avoided the problem.

Under normal operation the hardlinks take up a tiny amount of space.

Somebody suggested to purging and redeploying them now to get back the 40 gigs..

But to be honest I am a bit afraid to do that, because I have also "disabled" mods installed.

I spent gazillion hours for my load order.... I also edited a lot of mod config files and etc. I don't remember if they were installed via vortex or not... and there are those mods where you do the settings when enabling the mod, are those for the first time or will I have to do them again if I redeploy?

Does purging reset any of these? Can I safely purge and redeploy and my game wouldn't change a bit?

Edited November 30, 2023 by ComZiz
addition

[showler]

Purging is non-destructive.  Deploying will put the hardlinks back exactly as they were.

Anything not installed through Vortex won't have hardlinks to be purged and won't be altered.  Mod settings should be unaffected.

However, and this is the problem, this would only work on the old drive to my understanding.  Because you copied the files to a new drive your hardlinks are no longer hardlinks, they are real files.  I don't think Vortex can purge them on the new drive because of this.

[ComZiz]

15 hours ago, showler said:

Purging is non-destructive.  Deploying will put the hardlinks back exactly as they were.

Anything not installed through Vortex won't have hardlinks to be purged and won't be altered.  Mod settings should be unaffected.

However, and this is the problem, this would only work on the old drive to my understanding.  Because you copied the files to a new drive your hardlinks are no longer hardlinks, they are real files.  I don't think Vortex can purge them on the new drive because of this.

Before I rush and click anything. What do you think would happen if I purge now?

Let's say vortex couldn't delete the files... What would happen when I redeploy them, would it re-write them as hardlinks?

Edited November 30, 2023 by ComZiz

[dizietemblesssma]

What Vortex does when deploying a file where there already exists a version of that file (that Vortex is not responsible for) is it renames the original with the suffix 'vortex_backup'.

Where the file is already managed by Vortex i.e. same file different mod, Vortex simply changes the hard link to the other version of the file.  If you deploy all your mods to the new hard drive and there are no old versions of files put there by you manually that you want to keep, then you can just delete the files suffixed 'vortex_backup';  unless: the thing to watch for is if your mods install new versions of files that come with the original game:)  Of course that can usually be fixed by purging mods and then verifying your game files with Steam GOG etc.

 

diziet