Using Symbolic Links in Vista/Windows 7 for Google Chrome User Data

Recently I have been able to shed Firefox completely and start using Google Chrome, mainly due to it’s simple and speedy nature, but you can read all about that in my previous quick review of it when it first came out here.

I have recently purchased an OCZ Vertex SSD, the problem with Solid State Drives at the moment is their limited writes and while the MTBF is high enough to not expect to reach the limit before it becomes obselete it is still enough to make you self conscious about what gets to write to the drive.

Web browsers are arguably the most common abusers of file reads/writes on hard drives, the cache is constantly being written and overwritten as you browse and SSD users often look for a way to keep a browser’s cache off their SSD. With Firefox it is as easy as using Firefox Portable, it’s also quite handy to use if you move from computer to computer, but Google Chrome doesn’t have this feature yet, though a Chromium based browser SRWare Iron has a portable version.

There is a simple solution for keeping Chrome’s cache and other user data on another drive and that is the symbolic linking feature found in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Move the User Data folder from the C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome directory and place it on the other drive in whatever folder you want to call it, I simply put mine in D:\Chrome Profile

The next step is open up Command Prompt as an Administrator (right click, then click “Run as Administrator”) then type in the following command

mklink /J “where you want the symlink and what you want to call it” “where the real folder is”

For Example:


mklink /J "C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data" "D:\Chrome Profile\User Data"

In this case the symlink name must be called User Data.

The /J command tells it to make a Directory Junction, in other words make windows applications believe that the folder is in the same spot as the symlink, you will notice that if you head to the chrome AppData folder on the SSD that there will be a folder with a shortcut icon in it called User Data, if you double click on it all your user data files with be inside and unlike opening up a normal shortcut, or soft symlink, the files in the folder will all appear to be on the SSD in the correct folder.

If you open up Google Chrome it will open as if nothing happened.

Update 22nd August 2009: I have done the same thing with Firefox’s ‘Mozilla’ profile directory, the only problem is if you load Thunderbird Portable it will for some reason (and somehow) delete your ‘Mozilla’ junction for Firefox, the solution for now is to set up Thunderbird with the ‘Thunderbird’ folder in the same fashion and not use Thunderbird Portable for this function.

D-Link DIR-655 BETA01 Firmware 1.32NA

Update 16th January 2010: 1.33b01NA has been released.

Update 1: A new build has been released of this beta, this one has been listed with the only change being CAPTCHA is set to disabled by default, however it is 2KB larger so perhaps they have changed something else. I have updated download links below.

Update 2: The final release of this firmware has been posted, check below for the download link, click here to read about it.

Update 3: D-Link has released a new beta firmware for the DIR-655 here, it ONLY fixes *a* SharePort issue.

D-Link have just uploaded a new beta firmware release for the DIR-655, this fixes issues with SharePort and fixes that CAPTCHA security leak that could cause the router to give out the admin password. I have not tested it personally so I am unaware of any issues however others at the D-Link forums have experienced no problems so far. There are also no reports of this fixing the lockup issues users of the 1.31 firmware were experiencing but it isn’t mentioned in the release notes, we will know for sure though in a few days.

Update: Some users are reporting great success with the new firmware and SharePort, lets hope that continues, also there has been a report from a Mac user stating that after upgrading the firmware the admin page was unable to be used in Firefox or Safari on OSX so keep that in mind those that don’t have a Windows PC just in case.

Release Notes:
Firmware: 1.32 (Beta 01)

1. Fix potential security leak with CAPTCHA.
2. Fix USB LED issue aboutShareport.
3. Update chklst.txt
4. Fix SharePort issue

Again this is beta firmware so it comes with the added disclaimer of possibly damaging your router, you can download the firmware below, I have made a mirror hosted here so if they take it down it will still be available here.

Download the final build here:
D-Link DIR-655 Firmware 1.32NA

D-Link DIR-655 1.3x Firmware Lockups

Update 16th January 2010: 1.33b01NA has been released.

Update: Firmware 1.32NA Build 09 BETA fixes this for most people.

A few people have been experiencing trouble with their DIR-655 routers locking up after about 3-4 days with web browsing slowly going downhill until the lockup during that time, I experienced the same thing.

I realised that I had SPI enabled, which in the past I haven’t had enabled, I disabled it and so far I haven’t had any lockups, it appears the SPI is overloading my router after a few days which to me is surprising for such a supposedly powerful router.

If you experience the lockups try disabling SPI, the other more common solution to do is to disable DNS relay, I’m not sure why this would be causing the router to lockup but it appears to be something to do with the latest firmware, hopefully they fix this in future firmwares.