"Windows - Delayed Write Failed" ?

[PeteCresswell]

I've been getting messages like:
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Windows - Delayed Write Failed... WIndows was unable to save all the
data for the file X:\$Mft. The data has been lost."
----------------------------------------------------------------

More than one drive, but so far I *think* they're all external - either
USB2 or FireWire.

The most worrysome of the messages pertain to my data drive. I *think*
I've got my data drive set to not cache - but I don't know from
"Delayed Writes". Same thing?

At first I thought it was one of my drives - but then realized I was
getting the message for more than one drive and asked myself "What're
the chances of concurrent multiple drive failures?".

Hypothesizing that maybe it's a USB card on the way out, and having two
of them; I tried swapping devices between cards to no apparent effect.

Also, one of the devices I'm getting the message for is plugged into a
(separate) 1394 card..

Can anybody suggest probable causes?

 

[PeteCresswell]

I *think*
I've got my data drive set to not cache - but I don't know from
"Delayed Writes". Same thing?

To wit, I've got Properties|Policies|Write caching and Safe Removal set
to "Enable write caching on the disk"=False on the system drive and
....|Optimize for quick removal=True on all the external USB/FireWire
drives.

 

[R. McCarty]

Channel "Saturation" or Bandwidth overload. Possibly, the way your
IRQ mapping is done you may have too many primary components
using "IRQ Sharing".

Sounds like hardware configuration - very complex to diagnose/resolve.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

I've been getting messages like:
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Windows - Delayed Write Failed... WIndows was unable to save all the
data for the file X:\$Mft. The data has been lost."
----------------------------------------------------------------

More than one drive, but so far I *think* they're all external - either
USB2 or FireWire.

The most worrysome of the messages pertain to my data drive. I *think*
I've got my data drive set to not cache - but I don't know from
"Delayed Writes". Same thing?

At first I thought it was one of my drives - but then realized I was
getting the message for more than one drive and asked myself "What're
the chances of concurrent multiple drive failures?".

Hypothesizing that maybe it's a USB card on the way out, and having two
of them; I tried swapping devices between cards to no apparent effect.

Also, one of the devices I'm getting the message for is plugged into a
(separate) 1394 card..

Can anybody suggest probable causes?

Pete

There are several issues, associated with this error message, discussed in the following KB article.

"Delayed Write Failed" error message when you manage files in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174

 

[PeteCresswell]

RE:

Channel "Saturation" or Bandwidth overload. Possibly, the way your
IRQ mapping is done you may have too many primary components
using "IRQ Sharing".

Sounds like hardware configuration - very complex to diagnose/resolve.

Haven't read the KB article yet... but what I'm getting so far is
"Move your Data drive to the motherboard."..... Which I just did by
purchasing a new 160-gigger and hooking it direct to Primary IDE.

Already I can see a diff. First I tried putting the new 160 in a USB2
wrapper and had recurring problems trying to copy the data from the old
drive to the new.

Now, with the 160 hanging on Primary IDE, the copies are going smoothly.