Delayed Write Failed - could I have lost data?

[Arno]

You mean it isn't possible for a file to still exist and have a few
corrupted or missing bits - it's either there and completely intact,
or it's corrupted and totally gone?

Usually you can get
1) missing file
2) present file partial data (anuthing between 0 Bytes there and the last
byte missing)
3) full data.

What you typically cannot get is corrypted data. It either is
there and correct or (partially) missing. Of course, if you edited a
file, the edits can be partially missing either in cronological order
or in sequence from the start of the file, depending on the editors
update strategy.

Arno

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

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

Why the hell doesn't Windows flush the write cache when it goes into
hibernation?

 

[Arno]

Why the hell doesn't Windows flush the write cache when it goes into
hibernation?

While I think the Windows is (still) at best a toy, in all fairness
if the disk refuses to take data, flushing the write-buffer (no, it
is not a cache) is impossible.

Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

Tom Del Rosso wrote

John John MVP wrote

Why the hell doesn't Windows flush the write cache when it goes into hibernation?

It does. It can also write some status stuff to the drive before hibernating
and can shut down too quickly before it gets written to the drive, particularly
if there is some delay writing that status stuff to the druve.

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Tom Del Rosso



While I think the Windows is (still) at best a toy, in all fairness
if the disk refuses to take data, flushing the write-buffer (no, it
is not a cache) is impossible.

Does the disk refuse because it has to spin up first? Windows should be
able to delay the shutdown in that case.

 

[Guest]

Rod, looks like you're right about the data being fine and it was just
a weird hibernation glitch. Since I had gotten a "delayed write
failed" error, I just assumed that the drive's policy was set to
"Optimize for performance". Then right after I started this thread, I
went out of town for over a week with my work laptop, so I couldn't
check my personal laptop. Now I'm finally home and was able to check
on what the policy was set to - it is set to "Optimize for quick
removal", which means the data must have been written correctly.

 

[Rod Speed]

Ant wrote

Tom Del Rosso wrote

It does.

Why the frak do we have write cache? Is it for speed?

Yep. Otherwise you'd have to wait till the sector you are writing to moves under the heads etc.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod, looks like you're right about the data being fine and it was
just a weird hibernation glitch. Since I had gotten a "delayed
write failed" error, I just assumed that the drive's policy was set to
"Optimize for performance". Then right after I started this thread, I
went out of town for over a week with my work laptop, so I couldn't
check my personal laptop. Now I'm finally home and was able to
check on what the policy was set to - it is set to "Optimize for quick
removal", which means the data must have been written correctly.

Thanks for that detail, too rare IMO.

 

[Arno]

Does the disk refuse because it has to spin up first? Windows should be
able to delay the shutdown in that case.

The disk is in an error-state. Have you not read the OP?

Arno

 

[Arno]

On 10/25/2011 11:39 PM PT, Tom Del Rosso typed:

Why the frak do we have write cache? Is it for speed?

1. It is a write-buffer, not a cache.
2. Indeed. Makes write ops massively faster with typical
loads.

Arno

 

[Tom Del Rosso]

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Tom Del Rosso

The disk is in an error-state. Have you not read the OP?

I couldn't even see it. I have google groups blocked. I'll try to glean
what he said from the other replies.

 

[Arno]

I couldn't even see it. I have google groups blocked. I'll try to glean
what he said from the other replies.

Ah. The thing is that he got a "delyed write failure"
and the machine refudes to go to sleep. He then forced it
into sleep anyways and was surprised about the data loss.
Aoe something like this.

Arno