Could a Windows Explorer crash end up corrupting data?
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From: void.no.spam.com on 11 Aug 2010 12:12 Using Windows Explorer, I moved several gigabytes of data from my hard drive to a USB drive. Then later in the day, Windows Explorer crashed - it said something like "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" and it also mentioned the possibility of losing data. I know that sometimes when you copy stuff to a USB drive, not all the data will get copied immediately, due to caching, and that's why you need to click the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon before you unplug the drive. I never clicked on that after I moved my files, because I just left the USB drive plugged in. Is it possible that data on my USB drive may have been corrupted by Windows Explorer crashing? I would imagine that the caching mechanism is a lower level function that wouldn't be impacted by an application crashing, but then maybe Windows Explorer is deeply tied into the OS, so I don't know.
From: Bob I on 12 Aug 2010 08:24 You could have corrupted data without Windows Explorer "crashing". If by "later in the day" you mean a even few minutes later, it's most likely the "cached data" was flushed/written. Any "corruption" would be unrelated to the file transfer. You can always check it. void.no.spam.com(a)gmail.com wrote: > Using Windows Explorer, I moved several gigabytes of data from my hard > drive to a USB drive. Then later in the day, Windows Explorer crashed > - it said something like "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem > and needs to close" and it also mentioned the possibility of losing > data. > > I know that sometimes when you copy stuff to a USB drive, not all the > data will get copied immediately, due to caching, and that's why you > need to click the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon before you unplug the > drive. I never clicked on that after I moved my files, because I just > left the USB drive plugged in. Is it possible that data on my USB > drive may have been corrupted by Windows Explorer crashing? I would > imagine that the caching mechanism is a lower level function that > wouldn't be impacted by an application crashing, but then maybe > Windows Explorer is deeply tied into the OS, so I don't know. >
From: void.no.spam.com on 12 Aug 2010 11:14 By later in the day, I meant several hours later. I wasn't sure how the cache gets flushed - if it is time based, or if it doesn't get flushed until the next time you try writing to the device. As for checking the data, it was about 40 hours worth of videos that I transferred - it'd take quite a while to verify that! On Aug 12, 8:24 am, Bob I <bire...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > You could have corrupted data without Windows Explorer "crashing". If by > "later in the day" you mean a even few minutes later, it's most likely > the "cached data" was flushed/written. Any "corruption" would be > unrelated to the file transfer. You can always check it. > > void.no.spam....(a)gmail.com wrote: > > Using Windows Explorer, I moved several gigabytes of data from my hard > > drive to a USB drive. Then later in the day, Windows Explorer crashed > > - it said something like "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem > > and needs to close" and it also mentioned the possibility of losing > > data. > > > I know that sometimes when you copy stuff to a USB drive, not all the > > data will get copied immediately, due to caching, and that's why you > > need to click the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon before you unplug the > > drive. I never clicked on that after I moved my files, because I just > > left the USB drive plugged in. Is it possible that data on my USB > > drive may have been corrupted by Windows Explorer crashing? I would > > imagine that the caching mechanism is a lower level function that > > wouldn't be impacted by an application crashing, but then maybe > > Windows Explorer is deeply tied into the OS, so I don't know.
From: Bob I on 12 Aug 2010 13:37 CHKDSK should suffice to determine whether the data was written and a simple compare of the "files and folders" count plus "total bytes" should tell you if the files made the trip. void.no.spam.com(a)gmail.com wrote: > By later in the day, I meant several hours later. I wasn't sure how > the cache gets flushed - if it is time based, or if it doesn't get > flushed until the next time you try writing to the device. As for > checking the data, it was about 40 hours worth of videos that I > transferred - it'd take quite a while to verify that! > > On Aug 12, 8:24 am, Bob I <bire...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > >>You could have corrupted data without Windows Explorer "crashing". If by >>"later in the day" you mean a even few minutes later, it's most likely >>the "cached data" was flushed/written. Any "corruption" would be >>unrelated to the file transfer. You can always check it. >> >>void.no.spam....(a)gmail.com wrote: >> >>>Using Windows Explorer, I moved several gigabytes of data from my hard >>>drive to a USB drive. Then later in the day, Windows Explorer crashed >>>- it said something like "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem >>>and needs to close" and it also mentioned the possibility of losing >>>data. >> >>>I know that sometimes when you copy stuff to a USB drive, not all the >>>data will get copied immediately, due to caching, and that's why you >>>need to click the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon before you unplug the >>>drive. I never clicked on that after I moved my files, because I just >>>left the USB drive plugged in. Is it possible that data on my USB >>>drive may have been corrupted by Windows Explorer crashing? I would >>>imagine that the caching mechanism is a lower level function that >>>wouldn't be impacted by an application crashing, but then maybe >>>Windows Explorer is deeply tied into the OS, so I don't know. > >
From: void.no.spam.com on 12 Aug 2010 15:45
OK I will run chkdsk on both the hard drive and the USB hard drive. Doing a compare is something I would have tried if I had done a copy operation, but since I did a move operation, I cannot do that. On Aug 12, 1:37 pm, Bob I <bire...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > CHKDSK should suffice to determine whether the data was written and a > simple compare of the "files and folders" count plus "total bytes" > should tell you if the files made the trip. > > void.no.spam....(a)gmail.com wrote: > > By later in the day, I meant several hours later. I wasn't sure how > > the cache gets flushed - if it is time based, or if it doesn't get > > flushed until the next time you try writing to the device. As for > > checking the data, it was about 40 hours worth of videos that I > > transferred - it'd take quite a while to verify that! > > > On Aug 12, 8:24 am, Bob I <bire...(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > >>You could have corrupted data without Windows Explorer "crashing". If by > >>"later in the day" you mean a even few minutes later, it's most likely > >>the "cached data" was flushed/written. Any "corruption" would be > >>unrelated to the file transfer. You can always check it. > > >>void.no.spam....(a)gmail.com wrote: > > >>>Using Windows Explorer, I moved several gigabytes of data from my hard > >>>drive to a USB drive. Then later in the day, Windows Explorer crashed > >>>- it said something like "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem > >>>and needs to close" and it also mentioned the possibility of losing > >>>data. > > >>>I know that sometimes when you copy stuff to a USB drive, not all the > >>>data will get copied immediately, due to caching, and that's why you > >>>need to click the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon before you unplug the > >>>drive. I never clicked on that after I moved my files, because I just > >>>left the USB drive plugged in. Is it possible that data on my USB > >>>drive may have been corrupted by Windows Explorer crashing? I would > >>>imagine that the caching mechanism is a lower level function that > >>>wouldn't be impacted by an application crashing, but then maybe > >>>Windows Explorer is deeply tied into the OS, so I don't know. |