How to move data\temp directory

[Smudge]

Many people have requested to have the ability to define where the NL temporary download data directory is stored. This will be an option in a future version but until then, here are the instructions on how to use Junction to create a hard link between directories. Hard links are kind of like shortcuts but the system can't tell the difference between the real files and the linked files.

The requirements to do this are
1) Running Windows 2000 or XP
2) Hard drives need to be formatted in NTFS and not FAT32
3) A junction creation utility.
Junction Link Magic by Rekenwonder (recommended)
Junction by SysInternals
NTFS Link by Elsdoerfer

The steps to relocate the temp dir with SysInternal's Junction are
1) Quit NewsLeecher
2) Install junction.exe into a directory in your PATH (C:\WINNT or C:\WINDOWS are good locations)
3) Open the DOS command shell (Start menu, Run, type command)
4) at the DOS prompt, run the junction command to create the hard link between directories. The syntax of Junction is
junction.exe "current location of dir" "where you want the dir"

In my case, I have NewsLeecher installed on my C drive in the Program Files directory. I have my NL downloads stored on the H drive so I would like to move the NL temp dir to the H drive as the directory NLtemp. The command I used is
junction.exe "C:\Program Files\NewsLeecher\data\temp" "H:\NLtemp"

The NewsLeecher\data\temp dir will look like the files are there but they are really located on the other drive. The byte count of the source drive will not increase, just the destination drive.

I've been running my NL for a couple of days like this without any problems. I hope this helps others, at least until Spiril adds this option to NL.

P.S. You can use junction to move any dirs from one drive to another. You could use it to move some of your applications out of C:\Program Files to another drive in case your C drive is full.

EDIT: Added Junction Link Magic and NTFSLink to the list of junction utilities.

[Lips]

Hey Smudge - thanks for the info.

--
Lips

[MrCrowley]

Thanx Smudge.
I always knew about hard links but never really understood how they worked, thanx for the info.

[RAW777]

Very nice tip, thank you very much...

I've wasted a lot of data on this problem, because my C partition is to small for a lot of incompletes thanx!

[GekkeKoe]

Nice trick.

To add to this: might also be useful to do the same for the

[Rambitology]

Here's another thought: if your Groups dir is already on an NTFS-formatted drive, just compress that folder. I went down from 154 megs to 67 megs just by doing that!

[techfuzz]

[Rambitology]

No, I happily discovered that it doesn't have a noticeable impact. Still, I might switch it back -- the files are modified so often that it just leaves more ways for things to go wrong.

[techfuzz]

[Rambitology]

Yep, shutdown time is a bit longer. (There ain't no free lunch.)

[techfuzz]

[Delta]

[Rambitology]

There's another one with similar features, but some variations as well. This one does hardlinks and junctions with its shell extension, and displays an icon overlay for files that're linked. It doesn't have any comprehensive management (after the fact) of a drive's links/junctions, though -- no listing of created points.

[arneo]

I just wanted to ask about the temp / cache folders ..

Thanks Smudge - Junction by SysInternals
Thanks Delta - Junction Link Magic by Rekenwonder
Thanks Rambitology - NTFS Link by Elsdoerfer

Ciao

hmm i remember there was a post about .. usefull utilities .. ill look it up Jup Here it is >>>
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[Smudge]

I really like Junction Link Magic. It even located all the links I had previously created with SysInternal's Junction.