hardlink/symlink with mapped drives in Server 2003

Question

I'm trying to create a hardlink on a Windows Server 2003 system using fsutil hardlink create M:\docs L:\docs but am receiving a message stating "The FSUTIL utility requires a local NTFS volume. I imagine this is because both my source and destination drives are mapped network drives.

Is there any way around this?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, hardlinks only work within a single filesystem. Making hardlinks between separate filesystems (local or remote) is not supported.

This bit of info from Microsoft does a good job of explaining what can and can't be done with hard links:

For example, in a system where C: and D: are local drives and Z: is a network drive mapped to \fred\share, the following references are permitted as a hard link:

C:\dira\ethel.txt linked to C:\dirb\dirc\lucy.txt

D:\dir1\tinker.txt to D:\dir2\dirx\bell.txt

C:\diry\bob.bak linked to C:\dir2\mina.txt

The following are not:

C:\dira linked to C:\dirb

C:\dira\ethel.txt linked to D:\dirb\lucy.txt

C:\dira\ethel.txt linked to Z:\dirb\lucy.txt

Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx