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What tools, akin to Treesize Free (and others of that ilk) are there that are hard-link aware? Either my google-fu is failing, or there aren't that many out there as I haven't yet found one.

I've already seen this question and this question that already tell me that certain tools aren't hard-link aware, but they don't suggest alternatives that are aware. There's also this question that only has one accepted answer which suggests sysinternal's du, but interested to know what others (if any) are out there

(It's entirely possible that this question may be seen as a dupe of that I've linked to above, but I want to solicit new opinion given that one is dated 2010. Also I don't know how much interest a question that already has an accepted answer will garner in terms of new knowledge when the rep's not up for grabs ;-) ).

Community
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Chris J
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    possible duplicate of [How can I check the actual size used in an NTFS directory with many hardlinks?](http://superuser.com/questions/217773/how-can-i-check-the-actual-size-used-in-an-ntfs-directory-with-many-hardlinks) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Mar 02 '12 at 13:19
  • Want better answers to an existing question? http://superuser.com/privileges/set-bounties – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Mar 02 '12 at 13:20
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    Most software recommendation questions get closed, which is a shame imo. Anyway, try TreeSize Professional https://www.jam-software.com/treesize/features.shtml You need to turn hard links on in the options, and look at 'allocated' (ctrl+2) rather than 'size' (ctrl+1) It's a free trial, but is pricey otherwise. – Kit Johnson Sep 14 '17 at 03:41

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If there is a tool out there that displays a tree and is hardlink aware, it will be imperfect.

Hardlinks allow files to live in more than one folder. But in a hierarchy tree diagram that most of these utilities use, a file cannot live in more than one branch. For example, many of the included games live under Program Files and Winsxs. So is a tree diagram to place the file under the Windows branch or the Program Files branch??

The bottom line is that folder sizes are an imperfect abstraction. Since files don't technically live in folders, you can't say a folder has a certain "size".

If you are pruning your harddrive, you should just focus on which files are the culprit, not which folders.

surfasb
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    Yes I know it will be imperfect, and that at best it is an abstraction. What is subsequently provided then requires an amount of analysis to determine what space really has gone, or tools that say "there's GB in this folder of which is hardlinked". What I want to make sure is that I have a realistic overview of the disk as I'm fully aware that arguments such as "WinSXS is gowing huge OMG!!" are completely null and void due to hardlinks. Hence wondering if there was anything out there that was semi-sensible. – Chris J Mar 05 '12 at 09:18
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    You can prove it by deleting files under WinSXS and then right clicking the harddrive. The piegraph will show that harddrive space as not changed. – surfasb Mar 06 '12 at 12:01
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    Yes, and deleting files under WinSXS, I've read, is not recommended and can shaft your system. However I'm also interested in stuff across the entire disk, not just WinSXS: that's just brought things to the forefront. What this seems to boil down to though is that ffectively it sounds like there isn't a tool that can do any form of hard-link analysis/breakdown. Fine -- that's all I need to know. – Chris J Mar 06 '12 at 12:04
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Junction Link Magic is a tool I used to tell me where the links are on the hard drive. It only shows folder links though.

The URL is as below: http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm

Douglas
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