New
#31
An old explainiation but still a good'un, reminds me of the good ol' DOS days
SourceWhat Are Cross-linked Files?
MS-DOS organizes the disk's data area into sections called clusters or allocation units. Each file has its own directory entry, which includes the file name, size, attribute information, date, time, and the cluster where the start of the file is stored.
The file allocation table (FAT) includes an entry for each cluster. Each cluster's entry includes either a code specifying that it is the last cluster in the file, or the number of the next cluster used by the file. Clusters can also be marked unusable, which CHKDSK reports as bad sectors.
Cross-linked files occur when two or more files are both marked as "owning" the same cluster. Usually, the last file updated is correct; the other is correct except for the cluster's worth that is part of the other file.
For example, suppose you have two files, each 512 bytes in size. Each file requires one cluster. If both files are marked as being located in cluster 5, then cluster 5 probably contains the file with the later date. You can confirm this by looking at it (if it's a data file) or running it (if it's a program).
Quote