Symlinks - Problems

[Boylston]

I will be brief about this, but I am worried that symbolic links for WoW directories can cause crashes in Vista 64.

System Details:
Vista 64-bit
4GB Ram
Q6600
8800 GT


Configuration 1: 5 WoW installs across 2 HDs (identical models). Nothing linked, all separate and complete installs.
C:\World of Warcraft\
C:\WoW1\
F:\WoW2\
C:\WoW3\
F:\WoW4\

Operated for 3 months with no issues...


Configuration 2: 5 WoW installs on 1 HD. \Data\ directory symbolicly linked on WoW1..4 back to the C:\World of Warcraft\Data\ directory.
C:\World of Warcraft\
C:\WoW1\
C:\WoW2\
C:\WoW3\
C:\WoW4\

First of all, I was underwhelmed, performance-wise. This setup did not seem "faster" at all. Secondly, I had several lockups and crashes using this setup (including during 2 arena matches, grrrrr) that I was able to turn on and off quite repeatedly by switching back and forth between configuration 1&2. These lockups were spontaneous reboots or hangups that were non-recoverable, and felt a lot like the kinds of system instability that occurs with bad main memory.

Has anyone else experienced problems like this with symlinks?

[Crucial]

Not sure about Vista 64, as I use Vista 32.

Previously I was running all 5 from the same wow directory but recently needed to keep the configurations for each client separate so went with configuration 2. There was no performance difference as a result (using mklink to map the data directory only). I also went through and cleaned out unneccessary addons and patches, etc.

[Havelcek]

Myself and others on the forum use NTFS junction points rather than symlinks. See: http://elsdoerfer.name/=ntfslink

I'll be installing Vista64 on my new box and will reply here if I have any problems with my junctions.

[Chorizotarian]

I use Vista x64 and so far as I know have never had a crash due to a symlink issue. Just to be clear, did you make your symlinks with the cmd.exe mklink command (really an NTSF junction point) or with Windows explorer "New shortcut...". The former is the way to go.

About the underwhelming performance, if you weren't disk bound in your 2 HD setup before then you shouldn't expect it to get better. It definitely shouldn't get any worse though.

[Djarid]

I have been running junctioned directories on XP for a few months, I upgraded to Vista 64 recently, bringing my wow disk across intact (it had 3 instances on it) I have subsequently created 2 new WOW directories and used mklink to junction the data directory.

I have suffered no problems and have actually seen an increase in performance, but this is probably due to the new mb and q6600

[Boylston]

Just to be clear, did you make your symlinks with the cmd.exe mklink command (really an NTSF junction point)

I used a mklink /D command.

[Chorizotarian]

Huh, I dunno. Try reverting your symlinks to point to 5 separate physical locations.