Why does a symlink (link) to the "Users" folder weigh as much as the "Users" folder itself?

Question

System administration

Good afternoon, please tell me why?
On the C:\ drive (Windows 7 Pro x32 Ru) there are 2 folders: 1) Documents and Settings and 2) Users, each has a size of 12.1 GB, the size of all files inside each folder is 18.6 GB, and the total size of the two folders (if select both and click properties is 24.2 GB
Although : the folder, in this case, is only one ... "Documents and Settings" is just a symlink (link) to the "Users" folder (used to store user profiles since whist. ..), and the symlink is needed for compatibility with applications written for older systems that used the "Documents and Settings" folder to store profiles...

Answer 1

This is the behavior of Windows so that you can estimate how much the folder behind the symlink weighs. If you calculate the occupied disk space with a calculator, you will find out the correct figure for free disk space, and you can compare it with what Windows Explorer tells you about this.