A hard link cannot span file systems.
A soft link can point to files anywhere on the network.
All hard links share the same inode number.
Each soft link has a unique inode number.
If you delete the source hard link file you can still access the other one. However, with a soft link, if you delete the source link, you cannot access the other one.
With a soft link, you can create a symbolic link to a file that does not exist yet. You cannot create a hard link unless the source file already exists.
