I forgot a milestone I reached a while back of 3k followers on my tumblr and 200+ subscribers to my website, so I wanted to give a little thank you to everyone with a tutorial
this is for anyone who wants to have as many mods as they want on a separate drive or device
a symbolic link (symlink) connects directories , files , and folders to one another. you can use them as a cloud type storage or file sorting when you have things that need to go somewhere as you add to them. 'symbolic' means working together but as separate entities. The link type we are using for linking our mods folder is the D LINK symlink. references : 1 & 2
1. I suggest before doing this to already have moved your entire mods folder to your new drive/folder/flash drive/ssd card. you can name the folder before it whatever you want. mine is G:\temp folder for mods may 2023\ + Mods my original 200GB folder so it is G:\temp folder for mods may 2023\Mods for me
the original path folder should be empty before doing the link otherwise it could mess things up or double your folders. I kept my Mod's folder on my original drive empty so once I linked them they will look like they normally would in my folder. BECAUSE to get it to work on flash drives and not just between folders is in order to symlink your FOLDER / DATA to a different disk: YOU HAVE TO Move the original directory to the new SSD drive. You must delete the original directory. so the original Mod folder has to be empty and named the same as "Mods"
2. Then make a new empty Mods folder in ElectronicArts/The Sims 4/
3. when you open your CMD prompt , run as administrator so you can have complete control. TO FIND IT: click search or start > type CMD > open CMD or CTRL SHIFT ENTER/RETURN
4. type in MKLINK hit enter/return
this list will pop up. we will use /D for linking the mod folder. NOT /H NOT /J
I suggest using a D/ link because you can delete the link in CMD prompt and not lose any files. other symbolic links you risk losing files. since it's just a portal-type function for files, it's gone once deleted or drive is removed.
link = the link to the original sims 4 mods folder at the top of your documents
target = where the new mods folder is that you will be linking the old one so that the computer will read your package files
format: MKLINK /D LINK TARGET
5. next to your new line of code below the list, you will type:
MKLINK /D "ORIGINALSIMS4MODFOLDERPATH" "NEWMODSFOLDERPATH"
how mine looks:
any path links that have spaces between the words MUST be in quotes like above. if you are unsure, use quotes anyway.
THAT'S IT! the CMD will say it was created if done correctly :)
it is very important to input the code correctly or you will get errors in CMD prompt. luckily it doesn't allow you to to input bad links. this means spaces , quotes and capital letters must be correct
TEST IT SEE HOW IT WORKS:
you can basically use the folders as normal, even other programs such as sims4studio , downloads , and any .rar .zip programs or setups will still recognize your Mods directory as the same
not only your game will read them the same but any other file paths you have set for other programs still will read them the same.
how my new drive looks with my actual mod folder:
how it looks on my computer: (the icon will change)
when opening my mods folder on my computer everything is there as it should be:
you can add remove delete files from both your new folder and your original mods folder the same, they both affect each other as the same folder. remember that.
Because we linked in CMD, if the drive is removed it disappears but reappears once it's reconnected. The 'portal' folder breaks.
disconnected:
reconnected & refreshed window:
to delete your mods folder link, search up all the symbolic links you have made on your pc by opening CMD and putting: dir /AL /S C:\ | find "SYMLINK"
and just delete it once it pops up in CMD
I have successfully linked my 5TB drive as my mods folder, without it being on my main hard drive. this gives me so much space and frees up my CPU from running hard trying to load CC on my drive. I hope this saves some lives & computers, and thanks everyone for your support - Y