Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped". I've
seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows, but this
time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop into
hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was able to
safely remove the drive.

Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried to
safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be stopped"
error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again, but when I
brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows displayed a dialog box
saying:

"Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data for
the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused
by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please
try to save this file elsewhere."

My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost, but
when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Elements.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
Index verification completed.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

625131831 KB total disk space.
577839972 KB in 1884 files.
1024 KB in 437 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
87383 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
47203452 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
156282957 total allocation units on disk.
11800863 allocation units available on disk.

That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't say
anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost data on
the drive?

On 10/19/2011 12:45 PM, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped". I've
> seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows, but this
> time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop into
> hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was able to
> safely remove the drive.
>
> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried to
> safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be stopped"
> error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again, but when I
> brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows displayed a dialog box
> saying:
>
> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data for
> the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused
> by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please
> try to save this file elsewhere."
>
> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost, but
> when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
> The type of the file system is NTFS.
> Volume label is Elements.
>
> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
> File verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
> Index verification completed.
> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
> Security descriptor verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
> File data verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
> Free space verification is complete.
>
> 625131831 KB total disk space.
> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
> 0 KB in bad sectors.
> 87383 KB in use by the system.
> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
> 47203452 KB available on disk.
>
> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.
>
> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't say
> anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost data on
> the drive?

The data is lost. See here for the recurring error:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174

John

What the messages basically meant were that your laptop had been attempting
to save data to the portable drive, but that in your trying to "out smart"
the warning that the "drive could NOT be safely removed at this time" (or
similar), there was corruption of that data that was being written to the
drive - *at that time*.

This data corruption was limited to the file that was being written at the
time the PC lost power due to the end of the hibernate sequence. And also,
the MFT would have lost it's validity due to the fact it could not be
updated after the loss.

The MFT was fixed by running chkdsk, and the data was probably some
inconsequential file written by a background process that enumerates
removable media (e.g. Window's Media Player). But I think you got off
lightly, the file system could have been damaged beyond repair on the
portable drive, and all data on it lost permanently.

You should always wait until Windows says that you may safely remove a
drive - else, if Windows will allow it, configure the device for quick
removal by check-marking the appropriate box in it's Device Manager
"Properties" for that drive.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)




<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:2f9ce058-7bf9-45ce-b7dd-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped". I've
> seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows, but this
> time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop into
> hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was able to
> safely remove the drive.
>
> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried to
> safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be stopped"
> error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again, but when I
> brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows displayed a dialog box
> saying:
>
> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data for
> the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused
> by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please
> try to save this file elsewhere."
>
> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost, but
> when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
> The type of the file system is NTFS.
> Volume label is Elements.
>
> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
> File verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
> Index verification completed.
> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
> Security descriptor verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
> File data verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
> Free space verification is complete.
>
> 625131831 KB total disk space.
> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
> 0 KB in bad sectors.
> 87383 KB in use by the system.
> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
> 47203452 KB available on disk.
>
> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.
>
> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't say
> anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost data on
> the drive?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote

> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped".
> I've seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows,

I do see it occasionally with an XP laptop and I just close the window
that was used to look at the USB hard drive, and just try the safely remove
again when it very rarely does it again even with that window closed.

Very very rarely even that wont work, but thats because I dont shutdown
that laptopl have it set to hibernate automatically when I close the lid and
that can see XP eventually need a reboot after months used like that.

> but this time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop
> into hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation,
> I was able to safely remove the drive.

You might well have found that just retrying the safely remove would have worked.

> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried to
> safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be stopped"
> error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again, but when I brought
> the laptop out of hibernation, Windows displayed a dialog box saying:

> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the
> data for the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error
> may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or
> network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere."

> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost, but
> when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>
> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
> The type of the file system is NTFS.
> Volume label is Elements.
>
> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
> File verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
> Index verification completed.
> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
> Security descriptor verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
> File data verification completed.
> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
> Free space verification is complete.

> 625131831 KB total disk space.
> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
> 0 KB in bad sectors.
> 87383 KB in use by the system.
> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
> 47203452 KB available on disk.

> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.

> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't say
> anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost data on the drive?

Not if the files you copied are visible.

The data was in the write cache, it wasn't flushed to the disk so it was
lost when the computer was rebooted.

These may be helpful:

http://www.storagereview.com/guide/cacheWrite.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818788
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb897438

John


On 10/19/2011 2:13 PM, Tim Meddick wrote:
> What the messages basically meant were that your laptop had been
> attempting to save data to the portable drive, but that in your trying
> to "out smart" the warning that the "drive could NOT be safely removed
> at this time" (or similar), there was corruption of that data that was
> being written to the drive - *at that time*.
>
> This data corruption was limited to the file that was being written at
> the time the PC lost power due to the end of the hibernate sequence. And
> also, the MFT would have lost it's validity due to the fact it could not
> be updated after the loss.
>
> The MFT was fixed by running chkdsk, and the data was probably some
> inconsequential file written by a background process that enumerates
> removable media (e.g. Window's Media Player). But I think you got off
> lightly, the file system could have been damaged beyond repair on the
> portable drive, and all data on it lost permanently.
>
> You should always wait until Windows says that you may safely remove a
> drive - else, if Windows will allow it, configure the device for quick
> removal by check-marking the appropriate box in it's Device Manager
> "Properties" for that drive.
>
> ==
>
> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>
>
>
>
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:2f9ce058-7bf9-45ce-b7dd-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
>> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
>> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped". I've
>> seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows, but this
>> time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop into
>> hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was able to
>> safely remove the drive.
>>
>> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried to
>> safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be stopped"
>> error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again, but when I
>> brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows displayed a dialog box
>> saying:
>>
>> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data for
>> the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused
>> by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please
>> try to save this file elsewhere."
>>
>> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
>> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost, but
>> when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>>
>> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
>> The type of the file system is NTFS.
>> Volume label is Elements.
>>
>> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
>> File verification completed.
>> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
>> Index verification completed.
>> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
>> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
>> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
>> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
>> Security descriptor verification completed.
>> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
>> File data verification completed.
>> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
>> Free space verification is complete.
>>
>> 625131831 KB total disk space.
>> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
>> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
>> 0 KB in bad sectors.
>> 87383 KB in use by the system.
>> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
>> 47203452 KB available on disk.
>>
>> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
>> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
>> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.
>>
>> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
>> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't say
>> anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost data on
>> the drive?
>

John John MVP wrote

> The data was in the write cache,

You dont know that the data he deliberately copied to the USB drive was in the write cache.

Its very unlikely that it still was given that he tried to safely remove the hard drive and had
the system say that it couldnt do that. That should have flushed the write cache to the drive.

Its much more likely that what got lost was what the system was attempting to write
to the USB drive at the time the system was hibernated, different data entirely.

> it wasn't flushed to the disk so it was lost when the computer was rebooted.

You dont know that that was the data that he attempted to write to the USB drive.

> These may be helpful:

> http://www.storagereview.com/guide/cacheWrite.html
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818788
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb897438
>

> On 10/19/2011 2:13 PM, Tim Meddick wrote:
>> What the messages basically meant were that your laptop had been
>> attempting to save data to the portable drive, but that in your
>> trying to "out smart" the warning that the "drive could NOT be
>> safely removed at this time" (or similar), there was corruption of
>> that data that was being written to the drive - *at that time*.
>>
>> This data corruption was limited to the file that was being written
>> at the time the PC lost power due to the end of the hibernate
>> sequence. And also, the MFT would have lost it's validity due to the
>> fact it could not be updated after the loss.
>>
>> The MFT was fixed by running chkdsk, and the data was probably some
>> inconsequential file written by a background process that enumerates
>> removable media (e.g. Window's Media Player). But I think you got off
>> lightly, the file system could have been damaged beyond repair on the
>> portable drive, and all data on it lost permanently.
>>
>> You should always wait until Windows says that you may safely remove
>> a drive - else, if Windows will allow it, configure the device for
>> quick removal by check-marking the appropriate box in it's Device
>> Manager "Properties" for that drive.
>>
>> ==
>>
>> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:2f9ce058-7bf9-45ce-b7dd-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
>>> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
>>> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped".
>>> I've seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows,
>>> but this time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop into
>>> hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was able to
>>> safely remove the drive.
>>>
>>> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried to
>>> safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be stopped"
>>> error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again, but when I
>>> brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows displayed a dialog
>>> box saying:
>>>
>>> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data for
>>> the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused
>>> by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please
>>> try to save this file elsewhere."
>>>
>>> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
>>> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost,
>>> but when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>>>
>>> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
>>> The type of the file system is NTFS.
>>> Volume label is Elements.
>>>
>>> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
>>> File verification completed.
>>> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
>>> Index verification completed.
>>> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
>>> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
>>> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
>>> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
>>> Security descriptor verification completed.
>>> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
>>> File data verification completed.
>>> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
>>> Free space verification is complete.
>>>
>>> 625131831 KB total disk space.
>>> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
>>> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
>>> 0 KB in bad sectors.
>>> 87383 KB in use by the system.
>>> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
>>> 47203452 KB available on disk.
>>>
>>> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
>>> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
>>> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.
>>>
>>> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
>>> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't
>>> say anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost
>>> data on the drive?

On 10/19/2011 3:15 PM, Rod Speed wrote:
> John John MVP wrote
>
>> The data was in the write cache,
>
> You dont know that the data he deliberately copied to the USB drive was in the write cache.


It's in the error message... "Delayed Write Failed". Delayed writing is
write-behind caching.




> Its very unlikely that it still was given that he tried to safely remove the hard drive and had
> the system say that it couldnt do that. That should have flushed the write cache to the drive.
>
> Its much more likely that what got lost was what the system was attempting to write
> to the USB drive at the time the system was hibernated, different data entirely.
>
>> it wasn't flushed to the disk so it was lost when the computer was rebooted.
>
> You dont know that that was the data that he attempted to write to the USB drive.
>
>> These may be helpful:
>
>> http://www.storagereview.com/guide/cacheWrite.html
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818788
>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb897438
>>
>
>> On 10/19/2011 2:13 PM, Tim Meddick wrote:
>>> What the messages basically meant were that your laptop had been
>>> attempting to save data to the portable drive, but that in your
>>> trying to "out smart" the warning that the "drive could NOT be
>>> safely removed at this time" (or similar), there was corruption of
>>> that data that was being written to the drive - *at that time*.
>>>
>>> This data corruption was limited to the file that was being written
>>> at the time the PC lost power due to the end of the hibernate
>>> sequence. And also, the MFT would have lost it's validity due to the
>>> fact it could not be updated after the loss.
>>>
>>> The MFT was fixed by running chkdsk, and the data was probably some
>>> inconsequential file written by a background process that enumerates
>>> removable media (e.g. Window's Media Player). But I think you got off
>>> lightly, the file system could have been damaged beyond repair on the
>>> portable drive, and all data on it lost permanently.
>>>
>>> You should always wait until Windows says that you may safely remove
>>> a drive - else, if Windows will allow it, configure the device for
>>> quick removal by check-marking the appropriate box in it's Device
>>> Manager "Properties" for that drive.
>>>
>>> ==
>>>
>>> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:2f9ce058-7bf9-45ce-b7dd-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
>>>> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
>>>> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped".
>>>> I've seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows,
>>>> but this time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop into
>>>> hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was able to
>>>> safely remove the drive.
>>>>
>>>> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried to
>>>> safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be stopped"
>>>> error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again, but when I
>>>> brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows displayed a dialog
>>>> box saying:
>>>>
>>>> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data for
>>>> the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused
>>>> by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please
>>>> try to save this file elsewhere."
>>>>
>>>> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
>>>> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost,
>>>> but when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>>>>
>>>> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
>>>> The type of the file system is NTFS.
>>>> Volume label is Elements.
>>>>
>>>> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
>>>> File verification completed.
>>>> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
>>>> Index verification completed.
>>>> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
>>>> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
>>>> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
>>>> Security descriptor verification completed.
>>>> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
>>>> File data verification completed.
>>>> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
>>>> Free space verification is complete.
>>>>
>>>> 625131831 KB total disk space.
>>>> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
>>>> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
>>>> 0 KB in bad sectors.
>>>> 87383 KB in use by the system.
>>>> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
>>>> 47203452 KB available on disk.
>>>>
>>>> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
>>>> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
>>>> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.
>>>>
>>>> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
>>>> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't
>>>> say anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost
>>>> data on the drive?
>
>

John John MVP wrote
> Rod Speed wrote
>> John John MVP wrote

>>> The data was in the write cache,

>> You dont know that the data he deliberately copied to the USB drive was in the write cache.

> It's in the error message... "Delayed Write Failed".

Nope.

> Delayed writing is write-behind caching.

Yes, but you dont know that its the data he cares about.

>> Its very unlikely that it still was given that he tried to safely
>> remove the hard drive and had the system say that it couldnt do that. That should have flushed the write cache to the
>> drive.

>> Its much more likely that what got lost was what the system was attempting to write to the USB drive at the time the
>> system was hibernated, different data entirely.

>>> it wasn't flushed to the disk so it was lost when the computer was rebooted.

>> You dont know that that was the data that he attempted to write to the USB drive.

>>> These may be helpful:

>>> http://www.storagereview.com/guide/cacheWrite.html
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818788
>>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb897438


>>> On 10/19/2011 2:13 PM, Tim Meddick wrote:
>>>> What the messages basically meant were that your laptop had been
>>>> attempting to save data to the portable drive, but that in your
>>>> trying to "out smart" the warning that the "drive could NOT be
>>>> safely removed at this time" (or similar), there was corruption of
>>>> that data that was being written to the drive - *at that time*.
>>>>
>>>> This data corruption was limited to the file that was being written
>>>> at the time the PC lost power due to the end of the hibernate
>>>> sequence. And also, the MFT would have lost it's validity due to
>>>> the fact it could not be updated after the loss.
>>>>
>>>> The MFT was fixed by running chkdsk, and the data was probably some
>>>> inconsequential file written by a background process that
>>>> enumerates removable media (e.g. Window's Media Player). But I
>>>> think you got off lightly, the file system could have been damaged
>>>> beyond repair on the portable drive, and all data on it lost
>>>> permanently. You should always wait until Windows says that you may safely
>>>> remove a drive - else, if Windows will allow it, configure the
>>>> device for quick removal by check-marking the appropriate box in
>>>> it's Device Manager "Properties" for that drive.
>>>>
>>>> ==
>>>>
>>>> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>>> news:2f9ce058-7bf9-45ce-b7dd-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>>> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
>>>>> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
>>>>> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped".
>>>>> I've seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows,
>>>>> but this time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop
>>>>> into hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was
>>>>> able to safely remove the drive.
>>>>>
>>>>> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried
>>>>> to safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be
>>>>> stopped" error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again,
>>>>> but when I brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows
>>>>> displayed a dialog box saying:
>>>>>
>>>>> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data
>>>>> for the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be
>>>>> caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network
>>>>> connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere."
>>>>>
>>>>> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
>>>>> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost,
>>>>> but when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>>>>>
>>>>> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
>>>>> The type of the file system is NTFS.
>>>>> Volume label is Elements.
>>>>>
>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
>>>>> File verification completed.
>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
>>>>> Index verification completed.
>>>>> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
>>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
>>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
>>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
>>>>> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
>>>>> Security descriptor verification completed.
>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
>>>>> File data verification completed.
>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
>>>>> Free space verification is complete.
>>>>>
>>>>> 625131831 KB total disk space.
>>>>> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
>>>>> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
>>>>> 0 KB in bad sectors.
>>>>> 87383 KB in use by the system.
>>>>> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
>>>>> 47203452 KB available on disk.
>>>>>
>>>>> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
>>>>> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
>>>>> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.
>>>>>
>>>>> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
>>>>> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't
>>>>> say anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost
>>>>> data on the drive?

On 10/19/2011 3:55 PM, Bill Bradshaw wrote:
> Here is an example of what can happen. I use FreeCommander and may be
> copying with 2 windows open. One window with the files I want to copy
> and the other with USB drive open that I am copying to. After I am done
> copying if I do not change the drive in USB window some other drive I
> can not get the USB drive to shutdown because it is being accessed. You
> did not say how you were copying but if some program is accessing the
> USB drive you can not remove it because it is not stopped.

Another notorious one is System Restore which can put a handle that
seems to last forever on USB drives, System Restore should be disabled
on these drives, or rather I should say that System Restore should only
be enabled on the Windows volume and be disabled on all other drives.

John

On 10/19/2011 4:07 PM, Rod Speed wrote:
> John John MVP wrote
>> Rod Speed wrote
>>> John John MVP wrote
>
>>>> The data was in the write cache,
>
>>> You dont know that the data he deliberately copied to the USB drive was in the write cache.
>
>> It's in the error message... "Delayed Write Failed".
>
> Nope.
>
>> Delayed writing is write-behind caching.
>
> Yes, but you dont know that its the data he cares about.

The OP is the one who knows or should know if data is missing. The
error clearly states that the error was on his USB drive (e But, yes,
it could be another process that was trying to write to the disk after
the user's data was successfully flushed to the disk.



>>> Its very unlikely that it still was given that he tried to safely
>>> remove the hard drive and had the system say that it couldnt do that. That should have flushed the write cache to the
>>> drive.
>
>>> Its much more likely that what got lost was what the system was attempting to write to the USB drive at the time the
>>> system was hibernated, different data entirely.
>
>>>> it wasn't flushed to the disk so it was lost when the computer was rebooted.
>
>>> You dont know that that was the data that he attempted to write to the USB drive.
>
>>>> These may be helpful:
>
>>>> http://www.storagereview.com/guide/cacheWrite.html
>>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818788
>>>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...rnals/bb897438
>
>
>>>> On 10/19/2011 2:13 PM, Tim Meddick wrote:
>>>>> What the messages basically meant were that your laptop had been
>>>>> attempting to save data to the portable drive, but that in your
>>>>> trying to "out smart" the warning that the "drive could NOT be
>>>>> safely removed at this time" (or similar), there was corruption of
>>>>> that data that was being written to the drive - *at that time*.
>>>>>
>>>>> This data corruption was limited to the file that was being written
>>>>> at the time the PC lost power due to the end of the hibernate
>>>>> sequence. And also, the MFT would have lost it's validity due to
>>>>> the fact it could not be updated after the loss.
>>>>>
>>>>> The MFT was fixed by running chkdsk, and the data was probably some
>>>>> inconsequential file written by a background process that
>>>>> enumerates removable media (e.g. Window's Media Player). But I
>>>>> think you got off lightly, the file system could have been damaged
>>>>> beyond repair on the portable drive, and all data on it lost
>>>>> permanently. You should always wait until Windows says that you may safely
>>>>> remove a drive - else, if Windows will allow it, configure the
>>>>> device for quick removal by check-marking the appropriate box in
>>>>> it's Device Manager "Properties" for that drive.
>>>>>
>>>>> ==
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>>>> news:2f9ce058-7bf9-45ce-b7dd-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>>>> Last night I was copying files from a Windows XP laptop to a USB
>>>>>> external hard drive. Then when I tried to safely remove the hard
>>>>>> drive, I got an error saying "Generic volume cannot be stopped".
>>>>>> I've seen this error before and it goes away if I restart Windows,
>>>>>> but this time I didn't want to restart, so I just put my laptop
>>>>>> into hibernation, and when I brought it out of hibernation, I was
>>>>>> able to safely remove the drive.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Then later I copied more files to the USB drive, and when I tried
>>>>>> to safely remove it again, I got the "Generic volume cannot be
>>>>>> stopped" error again. So I put the laptop into hibernation again,
>>>>>> but when I brought the laptop out of hibernation, Windows
>>>>>> displayed a dialog box saying:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data
>>>>>> for the file e:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be
>>>>>> caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network
>>>>>> connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> My USB drive is drive E, and the $Mft apparently stands for master
>>>>>> file table. That error seems to say that data was definitely lost,
>>>>>> but when I ran a chkdsk on the drive, I got the following output:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>chkdsk e: /f /v /r
>>>>>> The type of the file system is NTFS.
>>>>>> Volume label is Elements.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
>>>>>> File verification completed.
>>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
>>>>>> Index verification completed.
>>>>>> Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
>>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
>>>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
>>>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
>>>>>> Cleaning up 12 unused security descriptors.
>>>>>> Fixing mirror copy of the security descriptors data stream.
>>>>>> Security descriptor verification completed.
>>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
>>>>>> File data verification completed.
>>>>>> CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
>>>>>> Free space verification is complete.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 625131831 KB total disk space.
>>>>>> 577839972 KB in 1884 files.
>>>>>> 1024 KB in 437 indexes.
>>>>>> 0 KB in bad sectors.
>>>>>> 87383 KB in use by the system.
>>>>>> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
>>>>>> 47203452 KB available on disk.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
>>>>>> 156282957 total allocation units on disk.
>>>>>> 11800863 allocation units available on disk.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That chkdsk output seems to indicate the drive only had minor
>>>>>> inconsistencies and problems with security descriptors. It doesn't
>>>>>> say anything about data errors. Is it possible that I still lost
>>>>>> data on the drive?
>
>