Note, this can slow your system down. Try it and see. If you routinely mount disks across a network, make an alias of the disk and the next time you need to access that disk the process for connecting to it will be streamlined. Every time your system starts up, those items will be launched. The most recent Mac OS will prompt you to select a new original if the old one can' t be found.
Nothing happens to the original item.
An alias' name is always in italics . And, the most recent Mac OS will show a small pointer arrow in the icon. Select the name of the alias and type anything you want.