Hardlinks vs Symlink

Hard link:

A hard link references what is called an inode, a spot in the computers memory that is identified by a number. The hard link allows for duplication of the same file without actually duplicating it on the disk. This may sound a lot like copying. Unlike copying, if a change is made to the hard link, it will also modify the original because they both point to the same spot in memory, the inode.

Symbolic or Symlink:

Symlinks are similar to hard links on the surface but behind the magical curtains, it is a different story. In contrast to hard links, symlinks do not reference an inode but rather references a pointer to another file or directory. If that file or directory that the symlink is pointing to is deleted, the symlink will be broken.