No More Drive Letters! How to use Hard Links, Symlinks, Junction Points and Mount Points on Windows

Dave explains both why Windows still has drive letters and how you can operate free of them using modern Windows features link hard links, soft links, junction points, and volume mount points. This is an expansion on a recent Shop Talk topic, so you might have heard the third 3 minutes already if you follow Shop Talk, but it's all additional/new after that! Please check out the NEW Merchandise Store: http://davesgaragemerch.com Windows 10 ISO Download: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO Free Sample of my Book on the Spectrum: https://amzn.to/3zBinWM Check out ShopTalk, our weekly podcast, every Friday! https://www.youtube.com/@davepl Follow me on X: https://x.com/davepl1968 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davepl LINK CHEAT SHEET -------------------------------- # Cheat Sheet: Links, Mounts, and Junction Points on Windows ## 1. Create a Hard Link (Windows) # Links a file to another NTFS inode on the same volume mklink /H "C:\path\to\hard_link" "C:\path\to\source_file" Example: mklink /H "C:\Users\Dave\doc_link.txt" "C:\Users\Dave\doc.txt" ## 2. Create a Soft (Symbolic) Link (Windows) # Creates a pointer to a file or directory, can cross volumes mklink "C:\path\to\soft_link" "C:\path\to\source" Example: mklink "C:\Users\Dave\doc_symlink.txt" "C:\Users\Dave\doc.txt" # For directories: mklink /D "C:\Users\Dave\link_dir" "C:\Users\Dave\Docs" ## 3. Mount a Volume (Windows) # Mounts a volume to a directory or drive letter mountvol C:\mount\point \?\Volume{volume_guid}\ Example: mountvol C:\mnt \?\Volume{12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890ab}\ # Note: Find volume GUID with 'mountvol' or Disk Management ## 4. Create a Junction Point (Windows NTFS) # Creates a directory link on NTFS mklink /J "C:\path\to\junction" "C:\path\to\target_dir" Example: mklink /J "C:\Users\Dave\Link" "C:\Users\Dave\Docs"