NTFS supports three types of file links: hard links, junctions, and symbolic links.
Hard Links
A hard link is a directory entry that points to the same file on disk. Multiple paths reference a single file on the same volume, and changes are visible through each link.
Hard links reference files, not directories, and cannot reference files on different volumes.
Junctions
Junctions use reparse points to make a directory appear at another location. Applications traverse them through the file system without knowing they are following a junction; they can reference directories on different local volumes on the same computer. Otherwise, junctions operate identically to hard links.
Write access to the parent directory is required.
# create a junction; write access to the parent is required
cmd /c mklink /J "<junction_path>" "<target_directory>"Reparse Points
A reparse point is an NTFS file-system object attribute, not a file or directory type. It tells Windows to stop and handle the object specially rather than treating it as a normal file or folder.
Each file or directory has a Master File Table (MFT) record containing typed attributes, including:
$STANDARD_INFORMATION
$FILE_NAME
$DATA
$INDEX_ROOT (for directories)Symbolic Links
A symbolic link stores a path to another file or directory.