Write cache delayed error on USB memory stick.

B

baobob

I have what I assume is a very common problem of getting the "Write
cache delayed" error EVERY TIME I copy more than a modest quantity of
files at once to my USB stick.

I searched all of Google groups for "write cache delayed USB stick"
etc., and, while I see plenty of threads about that error on USB
external rotating drives, I can't find anything on USB sticks. (Why?)

So to be clear: I'm talking about the little, 3" plug-in commodity USB
memory sticks you just can't help impulsively plucking outa the plastic
bin at the register at Staples because they're only $19.95 a GB.

I have an old 400MHz-class PC with an 8 GB HD. Altho' all the sticks I
buy are USB 2.0-compliant, my PC has USB 1, natch. I'm running Win 2000
Build 2195.

I'm using Cut and Paste in Windows Explorer to try to copy, say, a tree
structure of files from C: to a folder on the USB stick's drive letter.

I've tried 4 brands of sticks (Sandisk, Sony, you name it), and the
error happens on EVERY brand.

I've tried moving the stick to my other USB slot.

I've looked at the stick drive's device properties in the HW manager,
and the "Write Cache Enabled" checkbox is both blank and disabled
(grayed out).

The properties also say the stick is formatted in FAT. (Not that NTFS
is an option there...uh, is it?)

In the system's Advanced properties, where you can see and set virtual
memory page sizes, the desktop's HD has an assigned size range, but the
USB stick is blank. (So do I wanna muck with that?)

Win's defrag utility seems to show a fair amount of fragmentation on
volume C:, but says defragging isn't necessary.

I'm not jiggling, removing, or touching the stick during copying. I
never remove the stick w/out first anesthetizing it via the icon in the
system tray.

The error seems to happen randomly, i.e. copying chokes in a different
point on retrying the same copy.

This problem has cost me weeks. I've also spent many hours trying a
hypothesis that maybe pathnames are too long, or that folder- or
filenames contain characters unsupported by the stick mfr. (I do
occasionally get a path-too-long error, but in that case it usually
nicely lets you assign a shorter name interactively, then resumes
copying.)

With the Sony 1 GB stick, to be safe, I keep it reformatted using
Sony's (pathetic) little format.exe.

Occasionally after the error, as might be expected, part of the stick
ends up toasted & I gotta reformat. But that's no big issue.

THEN, for awhile yesterday, I was getting a behavior where, every time
the error occurred, Windows Explorer cheerfully dumped what appeared to
be the uncopyable part of its input cache back onto the goddamned ROOT
OF VOLUME C:--even tho' the top of the tree structure I was copying lay
SOME FOLDERS DOWN from the root. I'd delete the junk, remount and
reformat the stick, try the copy again, and again get a skunk in the
root cellar. Way to go, Redmond.

Anyway, what d'ya think I should do, upgrade to Windows du Jour? Is
there a setting on the desktop / Windows / HD controller side I should
tweak, or any other way of slowing down the input side?

Thanks much.

***
 
B

baobob

P.S. Sorry about the mismatched CR's in that msg. I used Google Groups
to input, yet the result looks like hell in same. I mean...huh?

***
 

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