Hardlinks not recognized by Skyrim

[iaminyourhouse]

Hello,

 

I've run into an issue I cannot seem to solve on my own. I am running Vortex 0.18.6, and the game in question is Skyrim. I recently migrated from NMM to Vortex because of the API being disabled. I followed the guide for migrating from MO/NMM to Vortex (https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Migrating_to_Vortex_from_another_Mod_Manager). After purging and deleting my mods from NMM, naturally, the esp's installed by NMM were removed from my data folder. The plan was that Vortex would now replace NMM in this task. This is where my issue lies. Hardlink deployment in Vortex, as far as I understand it, creates a link in the data folder of your game to where the mod actually resides. These links are placed in folders in the data folder itself. However, for some reason, the hardlinks in my data folder don't do their job. My mods won't work, and they won't even show up in my plugins list. I've tried purging the mods and re-deploying them countless times. I've even changed deployment methods from hardlink to move deployment, to no avail. I've also made sure that my mods folder is on the same drive as my game folder. I've tested dropping esp's directly into my data folder, like how NMM used to, and when I do that, they're recognized by my game. This is what led me to believe that the hardlinks were the problem, since my game could recognize esp's themselves.

Here's a screencap of my data folder.

Also, are the hardlinks supposed to be in folders with random strings of numbers, or is that just me?

[rmm200]

When you open an Explorer on your game directory, you can't tell if you are looking at a hard link or a real file. Hard links are a Windows facility.

Those numeric folders you see - are not hard links. They are nothing that should be in your Data folder.

First thing I would do is check your Vortex paths for Skyrim - make sure they point to your real game.

Next you will have to give us more information. Start here:

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/7332636-how-to-post-request-support-for-vortex/

[Rattledagger]

The numbered sub-directories looks just like how NMM stores mods in NMM's VirtualInstall-directory, but they should definitely not be present in the data-directory.

 

So either a screw-up with the paths as rmm200 mentioned, or you've somehow copied the directories from NMM to the data-directory.

[iaminyourhouse]

The numbered sub-directories looks just like how NMM stores mods in NMM's VirtualInstall-directory, but they should definitely not be present in the data-directory.

 

So either a screw-up with the paths as rmm200 mentioned, or you've somehow copied the directories from NMM to the data-directory.

What's strange is that Vortex adds these directories, I'm sure of it. After purging my mods, these directories are gone, and if I attempt to deploy them, they appear all of a sudden. I have no idea what they are tbh.

 

 

[iaminyourhouse]

When you open an Explorer on your game directory, you can't tell if you are looking at a hard link or a real file. Hard links are a Windows facility.

Those numeric folders you see - are not hard links. They are nothing that should be in your Data folder.

First thing I would do is check your Vortex paths for Skyrim - make sure they point to your real game.

Next you will have to give us more information. Start here:

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/7332636-how-to-post-request-support-for-vortex/

I have 98 mods installed, and my specs are as follows. AMD Ryzen Quad-Core 1400, 8 gb of RAM, GTX 1050ti. I am sure my specs are no issue though. And yes, the Vortex paths lead to my game directory.

[rmm200]

 

The numbered sub-directories looks just like how NMM stores mods in NMM's VirtualInstall-directory, but they should definitely not be present in the data-directory.

 

So either a screw-up with the paths as rmm200 mentioned, or you've somehow copied the directories from NMM to the data-directory.

What's strange is that Vortex adds these directories, I'm sure of it. After purging my mods, these directories are gone, and if I attempt to deploy them, they appear all of a sudden. I have no idea what they are tbh.

 

 

 

Vortex merges disk changes back into your mods if you ask it to. Sounds like maybe NMM changes got picked up.

 

You need to find out where they are coming from.

Disable half your mods and Deploy. See if those numbered folders are gone.

Divide by half and do it again, until you isolate the mod that is doing it.

Reinstall that mod, which will give you a clean copy from it's archive.

Let us know what you find.

[iaminyourhouse]

 

 

The numbered sub-directories looks just like how NMM stores mods in NMM's VirtualInstall-directory, but they should definitely not be present in the data-directory.

 

So either a screw-up with the paths as rmm200 mentioned, or you've somehow copied the directories from NMM to the data-directory.

What's strange is that Vortex adds these directories, I'm sure of it. After purging my mods, these directories are gone, and if I attempt to deploy them, they appear all of a sudden. I have no idea what they are tbh.

 

 

 

Vortex merges disk changes back into your mods if you ask it to. Sounds like maybe NMM changes got picked up.

 

You need to find out where they are coming from.

Disable half your mods and Deploy. See if those numbered folders are gone.

Divide by half and do it again, until you isolate the mod that is doing it.

Reinstall that mod, which will give you a clean copy from it's archive.

Let us know what you find.

 

Disabling my mods won't remove these strange archives, only purging them will. I have an idea of what could be contributing to my problem. My mod staging folder is under D:/Vortex, on the same drive as my game directory. However, in this folder, I can find the very same strange archives as the ones that appear in my data folder. Any ideas as to what the connection could be? Here's a screencap. I used the mod Apocalypse as an example, however the exact same happens with all the mods in my Vortex folder. Notice the path outlined in this screencap.

http://prntscr.com/nvmhoq

[rmm200]

Disabling a mod followed by Deploy is exactly the same for that mod as Purge. All bits of it are removed from your game directory.

Do two things:

1) Look inside your Apocalypse archive, using something like 7zip. Do you see that numeric folder?

2) Remove the Apocalypse mod (leaving archive) and re-install it.

3) Does the mod folder contain that numeric folder now?

 

I installed Apocalypse on my Skyrim. My mod folder shows exactly two entries; the ESP and the BSA. Nothing else.

[Rattledagger]

A quick look on Nexus-page for Apocalypse reveals the file-id of the first downloadable Apocalypse-file is 1000261384, the same as the directory in the screen-shot.

 

Since NMM is using this as a directory for installing mods, one possibility is Vortex has really screwed-up during importing from NMM, by somehow copying this directory + all files over to Vortex, instead of copying the contents of the directory.

 

If Vortex screwed-up the import of one mod I wouldn't be surprised if Vortex screwed-up the import of all mods, meaning all mods has a numbered sub-directory.

 

If so, what you need to do is to uninstall all mods for so re-installing with Vortex.

 

Note, I've never tried importing from NMM in Vortex, so I don't know how Vortex does things here.

[rmm200]

None of us actually recommend importing mods from NMM. Using downloaded archives - that is fine.

NMM does not preserve enough information about mods to successfully import them all.