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Forum Discussion
Do NTFS hardlinks within the Dropbox folder increase storage?
Dropbox Plan
Plus
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 11
Question or Issue
I need a certain structure in Dropbox. I have a folder called "Library", with lots of music in it.
The Library folder is not in the root folder of Dropbox, which is a problem elsewhere.
So I had a plan to create NTFS Hardlinks of the folder Library (recursively) and add the hardlinks to the root. Now I have \Music\Library and \LibraryHardlinks.
Both files in each folder point to the same point on the hard disk, which means it does not increase storage usage. But how does Dropbox deal with it when uploaded?
If Library is 100GB big, will the hardlinks in LibraryHardlink increase my usage by 100GB or is Dropbox smart enough to create links instead of re-uploading files and using my Dropbox storage space?
3 Replies
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey BrightDarknessā, thanks for posting here today!
I am afraid hardlinks are not directly supported by Dropbox, but you can still use them if they work for you.
As for the storage, I'd have to confirm what you already mentioned. Dropbox will individually count them as individual files.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know.
Hey, thanks for the answer. I was testing out a bunch of stuff. I am not using any symlinks. I'm using hardlinks. Two hardlinks point to the exact same location on the physical disc; and it seems the storage does go up as Dropbox sees them as two different files. š
- Mark
Super User II
But how does Dropbox deal with it when uploaded?
Dropbox will probably ignore it I'm afraid.
Dropbox only sync's what is actually inside of the Dropbox folder and ignores any links. While I'm sure it wont do it, previously when links did work, Dropbox did follow them and uploaded them - so using 100gb of space.
