Windows symbolic links are one of the most interesting functions that we can use on our computer and you may not have even heard of them. Or that you know that they exist in other operating systems, such as Linux, but not that they were available on your PC. Whether you know what we are talking about or if you have no idea, we review how they are made, what they are for or what really useful uses we can give them in our day to day to link folders and units.
To do them you will simply have to copy the corresponding routes, accompanied by a specific code, in the Command Prompt. We explain it step by step.
What are symbolic links?
A symbolic link allows us access to a folder or file that is in a different place on the computer than the one we are opening at that moment. It is designed for folders or files that we cannot move but that we always want to have at hand. Or for automatic syncing, for example. By opening the link you can access that original content. You can use them to access file systems within the device itself or the same partition, but also other devices or partitions you have, such as a hard drive.
The use of symbolic links is especially useful for cloud storage or to make a backup of everything we have in a location in C: if you want it to be synchronized in real time with an external hard drive, for example. If you add new files to the original folder, they are also added in the destination path. If you add new photos to your “Pictures” folder, they will be automatically added to the cloud or hard drive. That is, on the pendrive or external hard drive. You do not have to make periodic backups but they are automatically done in real time every time you make a modification in an original folder. It’s fast, it’s practical, and we’ll only have to create them once.
Advantage
As we said, the main advantage of these symbolic links is to make backup copies. Maybe every month or every two months you do a manual backup and take everything you have to one drive to the other, to the hard drive or a pendrive. But if you have symbolic links from the folders you want to copy or from the folder to the cloud, it will automatically synchronize every time you add something without having to worry if the files are damaged between copy and backup. Synchronization is automatic and the great advantage is that, as we have explained in the previous paragraphs, we do not necessarily need the destination to be neither on the same device nor on the same partition. The cloud or disks connected to our computer also serve.
How to create the symbolic links
If it has already been clear to you what it is for or you simply want to try the utility, we can create symbolic links in Windows although you have to meet two requirements: know the source path and the path from where we are going to copy. We also need to have administrator permissions on the system we are going to use.
- Press Win + R on your computer keyboard
- Type system32 and hit enter to confirm
- The System32 folder will open on your computer
- Find cmd in the file list
- Right click on cmd and tap on “Run as administrator”
Once here, with the Command Prompt open, we will have to write the path where we want to synchronize. We have to write a command where the source path and the destination path of that Windows symbolic link are included. Before the two routes, we will have to write Mklink / D. To make it a bit clearer: First the Mklink / D code, then the destination path and finally the source path from where we are going to make the copy we want.
Mklink / D “path where we want to create the link” “file source path”
That is, we are going to send the documents from our documents folder in C, whose path would be: “C: UsersUsuarioDocuments”. From here, we are going to make the backup copy in a folder on a hard disk that we are going to call backup , with path D: backup. The final path that we would have to write in the console would be:
Mklink / DD: backup C: UsersUsuarioDocuments
As always in these cases, it is essential that you copy symbols and spaces as they appear on the route and make sure that you have chosen exactly the route that corresponds to the two locations.
Prove everything is correct
Once the previous steps have been done and completed, we will see that on the command line it indicates that the folder or the symbolic link has been created correctly. Once you have it and the command console has told you that everything is correct, check that it works well. For example, copy a file or folder in the source path and you will see that at the moment it appears, without touching anything, in the destination path . You can have the documents on both sides automatically and effortlessly.
You can do it, for example, for your connected external hard drive (you will simply have to put the path D: as in the example) or for two folders that you have and want to link. For example, for files in the cloud with Dropbox or Google Drive. We can put the Dropbox folder as the destination and the images folder as the source. This way we will know that all the photos we save are automatically synchronized with the cloud effortlessly.
To consider
Keep in mind (as you will see in the screenshot below) that not all devices (it may be a pendrive and it gave you a failure) will allow symbolic links.
Another problem that we can find is that it does not allow us to create a symbolic link because the folder already exists. In the path where you create the Windows symbolic link, you do not have to put a folder that already exists but a new folder that will create this link. That is, you do not have to ask it to synchronize to something you already have but to create something new so that the synchronization is saved here. You can put backup or copy and automatically by following the previous commands you will see that this folder appears. If you put “Photos” in the path and there is already one named like that, an error will appear that will not allow you to create the symbolic link.