Backing up NTFS junctions 2

[SunShock]

I have a folder on my main drive for all of my media. For organizational purposes, I have used NTFS junction points where I want to put an album folder in two category folders, and this solution has worked wonderfully. The issue now is that I want to back up the folder, but with the junctions still intact. (For every each junction, the folder it points to is also inside of this Media folder). That is to say, I don't want to copy any of the data twice, and I want it so all the junction points will still work when I restore my backup.

Is there any way to do this? If not, it poses a major problem, as I would have to find each junction point, remove it, back up the folder, restore it, and then manually add each junction point again.

 

[linney]

Anything here to help?

"Selecting Restore junction points, and restore file and folder data under junction points to the original location restores junction points on your hard disk as well as the data that the junction points point to. If you do not select this check box, the junction points will be restored as common directories and the data your junction points point to will not be accessible. Also, if you are restoring a mounted drive, and you want to restore the data that is on the mounted drive, you must select this check box. If you do not select this check box, you will only restore the folder containing the mounted drive."

And more....

From the searchable Help and Support article "To set advanced restore options "

 

[SunShock]

Thanks, that helps a bit. It's still a bit limiting though. For example, if I back up the folder (originally on C) and restore alternatively to D, the junction point still refers to the folder on C. I am not sure if the junctions are purely drive letter based, or specific to an actual drive ID or something. (Meaning I am not sure if this will work if I perform the restore on a new system with a different installation of Windows).

Perhaps I should rephrase the question this way: how would I copy the folder, junctions intact, to another drive (with having the junctions pointing to the relative points on the NEW drive, rather than points on the older drive). It is okay to assume that the new drive will be given the same drive letter as the old drive before actually attempting to use the junctions.

 

[linney]

This is not something that I am familiar with but perhaps the use of imaging software such as Ghost would be able to do what you want?

 

[SunShock]

@linney: Imaging software solutions won't really work for me in this case. I am trying to do this preferrably without the use of an intermediate image file. Also, I only wish to copy one directory tree, not a whole drive.

 

[bcastner]

Let me jump in here, as imaging is not the solution.

Could you specify the reparse types you are using?

. reparse drive_or_device_A drive_or_deviceB:\ <<--- a root re-assign

. junction drive_A:\Folder drive_B:\Folder

Could you specify if you are using any third-party utilities to create these junction points?

The latter assignment is the most common in practical use. In this case NTBACKUP with the proper choice at backup, and the proper choice at restore, will restore the junction points on restore to the new drive -- assuming:

. that the drives are in the same GUID cluster;
. that the physical assignment of drive letters under Disk Management are preserved -- i.e. Source folder and target folder

As to a niggling concern raised originally, NTBACKUP does not do a double backup of a junction point. If set properly it makes one copy of the junction source drive contents. If done improperly you are left with an empty folder on the target drive.

 

[SunShock]

Thanks for the informative post, bcastner. To answer your questions, I have been creating junctions using the linkd utility from the MS resource kit. They are plain folder junctions.

linkd C:\Media\Genre2\Album_NamE C:\Media\Genre1\Album_Name

What settings are you referring to for NTBACKUP? Is it just that "Restore junction points, and restore file and folder data under junction points to the original location" is set for restore operation?