Windows 7 – Moving Folders with Junction Links (mklink)

I think the answer is (quoted from some helpful guy) :

What you have to consider is the way an application/program works on a file.

Some edit the file directly, and they should work perfectly fine with hardlinks. Although I didn't knew the "fileinfo difference" problem until now ...

Other applications copy the file and then delete the old one when they save their edited version. This programs obviously break the hard link with that hidden copy operation. What they save is no longer the file they had opened. When they then delete the old version, they remove this single hardlink from the directory. Other hardlinks remain, and so you get two files in the end.

So yes - hardlinks can and will break - which limits their usefulness - badly thought.

correct me if wrong

You can do this for Installer. You can use this tool:

http://bitsum.com/junctionmaster.php

JunctionMaster is a small and simple shell extension that will allow you to MOVE and LINK a folder in one easy step. It focuses on MOVING the folder, then replacing the original folder with a hard link (junction) to the new location. Windows (and the user) can reference the files at the same location as before, but the actual storage of them is on the other drive. It is handy for new hard drives, and also in the case of SSDs where you may wish to redirect some folders with lots of RW activity to a conventional HDD.

For instance, if you bought a new hard drive you might wish to move some large folders without having to change their paths? For instance, having it store the stuff in c:\movies, but not having the path of c:\movies change. This is what JunctionMaster will do. It would move the files to f:\movies, but c:\movies still accesses them just the same (with no perceptible difference at all in the shell until Windows 7, where it now shows a link overlay on the folder icon). You must be CAREFUL though as deleting the files from either location will delete them in both (since only one real copy exists).