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I was just creating a directory junction and had to use mklink. My question is what does mk stand for in the word mklink? And why does the first folder have to be removed to create the link when doing something like mklink /J "C:\Users\glenc\Apple\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\itunes-backups"

I had to rename Backup as Backup2 so there wasn't a folder before I could use the mklink. At lease now I can finally have my Windows Store iTunes backup files on another HDD now.

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  • MaKe Link, if a folder with the name you want to create a link to already exist you can't create a link with that name.
    – Ricardo Bohner
    Dec 12, 2020 at 13:34

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mklink creates the file/folder target. It is not the same as mounting a drive to a folder, you are creating an actual filesystem object that essentially says "go over there".

If the object being created already exists in a different form, whether a file or directory, then the existing object needs to be deleted in order to be allowed to be created.

"mk" is short for "make", as in "makelink". The same logic applies to mkdir and rmdir being "remove dir".

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