Bizarre Restore File/Folder Behavior involving Hardlinks

Hi all, been a long time referencer of sevenforums and tenforums, but never registered and posted until now.

So I've got a weird problem. I have an SSD and use an external HDD as my main storage for non-applications, to save room on the SSD, and today while going through some pictures to use for my Windows 10 lockscreen slideshow, I noticed everything in one particular folder had been deleted. Not sure of how this happened, I assume when I was organizing some pics before I'd accidentally deleted/moved them (I have a cat who loves to try and get on the keyboard for attention, who I have to stop and move, so it might've been during that) but I figure it's okay, because I can just restore them, as I have Windows do a nightly backup to a second external HDD.

The system's drive layout is like this:

Computer
-SSD (OS)

External drives
-Storage
-Backup

Windows does a nightly backup of files from both the OS drive and the storage drive, to the external backup drive. It doesn't do a system image (I don't have enough room on the backup drive for that) and it's using the Windows 7-style backup from my pre-Windows 10 upgrade because, frankly, I've read how Windows 10's File History feature basically sucks.

Bringing up the restore previous versions option on the folder shows multiple backups, but trying to restore it fails. It says the folder is already in use (it's not) and it can't access it. I tried multiple times, and closed all Explorer windows and made sure no program was accessing that folder, and it still gave an error.

Okay, so I click to manually open the backups and browse, and the folder I'm trying to restore is showing as empty, like on the live drive, except for one file I'd just put into the live folder. As if it was showing the live one and not the backup. I check all the backups, and they're all the same. I test this by creating a new folder on the storage drive and see it instantly appear in the backups. All of them. So Windows is showing the live folders, rather than the actual backups.

I think the problem is that I use Link Shell Extension to create hardlinks between certain folders on the OS and the storage drives, so I can access them and move them around like they were on the same drive. Previously on Windows 7 this wasn't an issue. Files got backed up no problem, and they were accessible and restorable when using the restore previous versions option. However I think Windows 10 is tripping up on them. It seems to back the folders up like normal, as the space used on the backup drive matches the space required for everything it backs up, but accessing them sends Windows 10 into a circle with itself. Some of the backed-up folders are hardlinks, and because Windows backed up those folders, it's treating them like normal, and accessing the storage drive rather than showing the actual backups for them.

Any idea on how to access the backups and pull the files out? I've tried a third-party program for exploring backups, but it hits the same problem. I tried turning off the storage drive and accessing the backups on the backup drive, and it just says it can't find the folders because it's still trying to access the storage drive due to the hardlink. I'm thinking of using a USB-bootable Linux distro to see if I can get past it, but I don't know if I'm going to have the same problem there.

Windows version is 21H1 (190.43.1415.)

Thank you for any help in advance. It's appreciated.

- - - Updated - - -

And after that huge post, I continue trying to access the backed-up files and succeeded. By simply right-clicking the actual Windows backup directory file on the backup drive, and selecting Restore Options, then Restore my files from this backup, then navigating to the folder in the backup, and it bypassed the hardlink issue and listed all of the files. Selected them all, clicked Next, chose the restore destination, and it restored them. It's like the front and back door approaches didn't work, but the side door one did.

Now I'm going to find a backup solution that can properly handle hardlinks like Windows 7 did before.

Glad you were able to find a way to access your data.

Be careful with the terminology (hopefully what I'm using is correct!).

My understanding is that in Windows, what you would refer to as "hard link" is for files only and not directories. Although similar in behavior, for directories, this would be a "junction" which you can think of like a hard link for directories.

The difference is that with a hard link, you cannot cross partitions. As an example, you cannot have a hard link for a file on C: point to a file on D:. A junction, on the other hand, can span partitions.

hsehestedt said:

Glad you were able to find a way to access your data.

Be careful with the terminology (hopefully what I'm using is correct!).

My understanding is that in Windows, what you would refer to as "hard link" is for files only and not directories. Although similar in behavior, for directories, this would be a "junction" which you can think of like a hard link for directories.

The difference is that with a hard link, you cannot cross partitions. As an example, you cannot have a hard link for a file on C: point to a file on D:. A junction, on the other hand, can span partitions.

Yeah, junction for directories. LSE doesn't help by using both terms.

I'm still bugged that Windows 7 handled this situation perfectly; it had zero problems restoring files from or browsing the backups that contained them, while Windows 10 got stumped hardcore by it. I'm still looking for replacement backup solutions that will work with them. At this point I might just have to download them, test them, and see if they do, before settling on one.

Try Macrium Reflect. There is a free version available. I know that I have seen options for how links should be handled. I'll post back about that tomorrow after I have had a chance to look at that. For now, I need to get some sleep. Been pushing way too many hours awake at this point .

hsehestedt said:

Try Macrium Reflect. There is a free version available. I know that I have seen options for how links should be handled. I'll post back about that tomorrow after I have had a chance to look at that. For now, I need to get some sleep. Been pushing way too many hours awake at this point .

I appreciate it, but I took a look at the free version and doesn't do what I need, which is file and folder backups without full system images (I simply don't have the drive space for that repeatedly) nor incremental backups. The paid version is required for both of those.

Ah yes, I understand. Sorry that isn't doing what you want. However, I have another suggestion...

It sounds like a good candidate for you might be FreeFileSync which can be found here:

FreeFileSync: Open Source File Synchronization & Backup Software

As the name implies, it's free. It does a fantastic job synching / backing up files and folders from one location to another and offers some great features. One of my favorites is that it can create a simple database file that allows it to do some smart things. Say for example that you rename a big 4GB file. Next time it does a sync it's smart enough to know that you simply renamed the file. So, rather than copy 4GB to the destination, it simply renames the file on the destination. There is a lot more, but I'll let you explore to see if it works for you .

hsehestedt said:

Ah yes, I understand. Sorry that isn't doing what you want. However, I have another suggestion...

It sounds like a good candidate for you might be FreeFileSync which can be found here:

FreeFileSync: Open Source File Synchronization & Backup Software

As the name implies, it's free. It does a fantastic job synching / backing up files and folders from one location to another and offers some great features. One of my favorites is that it can create a simple database file that allows it to do some smart things. Say for example that you rename a big 4GB file. Next time it does a sync it's smart enough to know that you simply renamed the file. So, rather than copy 4GB to the destination, it simply renames the file on the destination. There is a lot more, but I'll let you explore to see if it works for you .

I'd looked at this before, and it looked like it could only be run manually. Looking at it again, the batch file you can create can be run by Windows Task Scheduler, which automates it. I downloaded and tried it, and it's exactly what I need. Thank you.

Excellent! Glad that actually fits your needs.