I’ve been using Dropbox for months now and I love it. For those who don’t know about it, Dropbox is a file sharing/syncing/backup utility that gives 2GB of free storage (you can pay for more storage if you need it). It basically creates a Dropbox folder on your hard drive and any files that you drop in there are automatically synced to Dropbox’s servers. It also allows you to share files/folders with other Dropbox users, and it’s all synced in real-time. There are a ton of other features, too, but you can read about them at their website.
Tonight I noticed that I was running low on space on my C: drive. Turns out that Dropbox keeps a local cache of files that have been deleted just in case you need to restore them. It saves on bandwidth and time. It’s a great feature, and I’m glad it’s there, but apparently there is no option in the Dropbox software to change the location of the cache folder. My C: drive is only 10GB for system-related stuff and everything is stored on larger drives for data and program installation. Since my cache was almost 5GB, it was making my C: drive slightly angry.
After poking and prodding around on the internet for a while, I found a solution workaround using a Windows feature that I didn’t even know existed. Apparently ever since Windows 2000 (NTFS 5.0, really), Microsoft has hidden the ability to create Linux-style symbolic links through what they call ‘junction points’. Basically it allows you to create a virtual directory in one location that actually points to a real directory somewhere else. In my scenario, I’m using Windows Server 2003 so I had to install the Windows Resource Kit to get the tool for creating junction points. Here are the steps I went through to fix my cache issue:
- Exit Dropbox (right-click on the icon in your system tray and select ‘Exit’)
- Create an empty folder named ‘cache’ in the location where you would like to move your Dropbox cache
- Delete your current cache folder (Stored in c:\documents and settings\username\Application Data\Dropbox\)
- Open a command prompt (Start->Run->cmd)
- Navigate to the Dropbox folder (shown in step 3)
- Use the following command: linkd cache <path to your new cache location>
- Restart Dropbox
I can’t believe I’ve been using Windows for as long as I have and had NO clue that there was the ability to create junction points. I have a feeling I’m going to be using this on a pretty regular basis now. It’s one of those features that you didn’t realize that you missed having until you find out that you actually DO have it.