Appdata>Roaming>Vortex folder is 40 GB - safe to delete content?

[Belizarius]

Hello.

 

I noticed that the Vortex folder (Appdata>Roaming>Vortex>skyrimse>mods) is ~40 GB in size. Obviously these are my installed mods, however the mods also appear in the Steam game directory (for Skyrim SE), with another ~40 GB of disk space. Is it safe to delete the content from the Appdata>Roaming>Vortex>skyrimse>mods folder? Why are installed mods appearing in 2 different locations?

 

Thanks.

[AugustaCalidia]

It is not safe to delete the Vortex mods folder in Appdata. If you do that you lose your entire mods setup.

 

Your mods are not installed in two different locations. Your mods are installed once only in the Mod Staging Folder. What you see in the game data folder are hard links connecting the Mod Staging Folder to the game data folder. The ~40 GB you think you see in the game data folder is a false positive. There is not an additional ~40 GB of disk space being used. When Windows looks at individual files it has trouble identifying hard links as links and therefore imputes the size of the linked files to the hard links themselves, thus doubling the reported space utilization. This is a widely known fact about hard links, as a web search will quickly show.

Edited March 10, 2021 by AugustaCalidia

[Pickysaurus]

You can move the bulk of this data by changing your Mod Staging Folder and Download folder paths.

 

Settings -> Mods -> Mod Staging Folder (note, this must be on the same HDD as your games)

Settings -> Downloads -> Download folder (this can be anywhere)

[HadToRegister]

You can move the bulk of this data by changing your Mod Staging Folder and Download folder paths.

 

Settings -> Mods -> Mod Staging Folder (note, this must be on the same HDD as your games)

Settings -> Downloads -> Download folder (this can be anywhere)

 

 

BE SURE TO MOVE THOSE FOLDERS USING VORTEX!!

 

DO NOT use WIndows Explorer and move them to a different drive and expect Vortex to know you did it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Belizarius]

It is not safe to delete the Vortex mods folder in Appdata. If you do that you lose your entire mods setup.

 

Your mods are not installed in two different locations. Your mods are installed once only in the Mod Staging Folder. What you see in the game data folder are hard links connecting the Mod Staging Folder to the game data folder. The ~40 GB you think you see in the game data folder is a false positive. There is not an additional ~40 GB of disk space being used. When Windows looks at individual files it has trouble identifying hard links as links and therefore imputes the size of the linked files to the hard links themselves, thus doubling the reported space utilization. This is a widely known fact about hard links, as a web search will quickly show.

Ok, thank you.