Is it possible to create a "broken hard link" in Windows?

Note: This question is specifically about hard links in Windows like those used by the Windows Component Store This question is not about Reparse Points, Symbolic Links , or Junctions. I am using this system clone utility that seems to use DISM under the hood. Occasionally during cloning it fails with the following error: Clone failed - Error 9 - The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable. (1392) Sometimes the running the command Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup recommended in this answer seems to cure the problem. Other times a Windows Update seems to cure the problem

Question by alx9r on Super User, licensed CC BY-SA. We show a short excerpt and link to the original thread as credit.