Not working at all

[Grestorn]

Ok, hard links are a confusing concept if you're new to them - especially since Windows Explorer doesn't properly show them.

 

Check out this for an explanation: https://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx

 

If you want, you can install this tool to get a better representation of hard links in Windows Explorer: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html

 

But that's in no way required, just a tool to give you a better understanding. In the end, hard links are just a way to have a single file in multiple places on your disk drive at once without having to actually copy it - so it uses disk space only once, even though the same file appears in multiple places.

[Tannin42]

 

I don't understand that sentence. It seems to say the files are not actually in the Data folder. If you checked the size of the Data folder, then used Vortex to install a bunch of huge texture mods then rechecked the size of the data folder it wouldn't be any bigger? If the downloaded files aren't really in Data where are they? Could someone explain how this works because I'm reading explanations and just getting more confused.

 

 

It is a bit hard to understand. Under the hood every file on your hard disk consists of two parts, one is "managements" stuff like the file name, file dates, attributes, the other is "data", the actual file contents.

These are stored in entirely separate sections on your disk and the "management" part has a pointer to the "data" part, but not the other way around. The entire concept of "folders" exists only in the management part, they are purely a convenience for the user - the actual data on your disk is stored in one big heap of ones and zeros. Imagine a library where the books are stored as loose pages, completely unsorted and without binder. The only way to find what you're looking for is through an index that states exactly where a book begins and where it ends (shelf a, row b, page c through d).

 

So when explorer tries to figure out how much space a folder takes it goes through the management info for that folder.

Now when you create a hard link, all that does is create a second "management" block that references the same data as an existing file (as if you created an additional index card in our library for an existing book).

Since the explorer has to go through the management info to count files it will now count the file twice even though no additional data has been stored on disk.

For all intends and purposes it will appear as if the file was duplicated except no additional space was used. Assume you have a 1TB disk which is 90% full (-> 900GB used, 100GB free) and you hard link every single file on the disk. If you now let explorer calculate used and available disk space it would say that your 1TB disk has 1.8TB data on it and 100GB free.

[greyday01]

Thanks. That helps.

[CrestedDragon]

it's not that they not working but the vortex sometime making the plugins vanish I tested it with alternate start and a texture and mesh mod and the alternate start plugin vanishes after installing the next mod.

[Grestorn]

Never experienced anything like that. What do you mean by 'vanishing'? Gone from the Mod tab? The Doenload tab? The Plugin Tab?

[CrestedDragon]

Never experienced anything like that. What do you mean by 'vanishing'? Gone from the Mod tab? The Doenload tab? The Plugin Tab?

the plugin tab. it's doing a "one or the other" type of thing like I install one mod and some mods plugins vanish and when I reinstall them that very mod I installed vanishes and the other show up.

[Grestorn]

Are you sure you don't have an active filter in the Plugin list? Is there any other tool in the back fiddeling with the plugin.txt (i.e. do you have LOOT or NMM running as well)?

 

This never happened to me, and I've been working with Vortex for months now. There has to be a reason and it's not very likely (but still possible) that this is a bug in Vortex.

[sopmac45]

I have had plugins not enabled when the mod is, but never a "vanished" plugin while the mod is there or viceversa. You should use Vortex feedback to report this CrestedDragon !