Since I use TBP the same Problem:
Don't matter if I shoot down my PC or Laptop, or try to make a save release of the hardware, different files are damaged and I need to use chkdsk /f /r to repair filesystem.
The same error occours on USB-HDD with NTFS and FAT32 as well as on flash drive using FAT32.
In past i'd lost somtimes TBP system files, sometimes e-mail folders and somtimes both.
But: this error occours not, if I use TBP running on internal HDD.
(Yes, I had a lot of fun.)
Any idea????
Thanks in advance!!!
Otmar
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A user space app somehow damaging a file system isn't possible.
If both of these are occuring on the same PC, then there is something wrong with your operating system or your USB ports. The former happens a lot (spyware, malware, virus, etc). The latter happens quite often, too... underpowered USB ports or shorts result in lost data which results in corrupted file systems.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well, I suppose an obvious question might be, are you waiting for the program to shutdown before ejecting? Are you using an eject script, or just pulling out the plug? Have you enabled write caching? Was journaling enabled when you tried NTFS? Does it happen when the USB drive is plugged into the back of the machine as well as the front ports?
When run on a slower medium, the portable programs take a long time to close down and clean up (compared to faster internal drives). I'd guess that pulling the plug while the program is trying to write a file might result in the file being in an indeterminate state; doing it while Windows was re-writing a directory entry might result in the directory being messed up. An underpowered USB port or other electronic problem could do the same thing.
Are you able to replicate the file damage with a particular activity - just starting TBP, compacting a folder, sending a message? Or is it a relatively random behavior?
There is a German language forum, in case it might be more comfortable to explain the situation that way.
MC
Thought I do not understand details fully yet, but recently I had bad experiencies with some 'faked' usb sticks.
Friend bought some sticks of 16gb for 74 USD! Well this should be warning enough, but when I tested them on some systems including w2k, w98se , xp, I found that copying larger amouts of data to it , or better say try to copy, did lot of damage on the host system as well. The NTFS partitions survived, but those having fat32 lost files, folders, scandisk found later lot of chk files. This damage did not only restricted to the actual files copied, but other parts also.
w2k system finaly crashed and hat to be restored compltely from image file.
w98se with universal usb driver was the only one able to format such usb stick, but it ended up in the stick being unusable.
Opening the stick showed only the controller and one mem chip soledred by hand and label filed apparently off. From the chip size I assume this is 1gb chip and the faked partition table was written into it somehow and present day OS refused to format it. Only w98se tried, that was it, the faked fat is gone, the partiton table or what ever too, it also no mire possible to communicate with it.
Whe it was packet out, still it seemed to 'accept' lot of data, but this was late rnot found on the stick and fat32 partitions on the pc had damage.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
This would be a possible cause for my 4GB flashdrive i'd bougt for $ 15.-. But I dont believe in this case using a fast WD Passport 250 GB.
This has been covered before. I bought a 4GB wich was only able to store 2GB. Low level formatting revealed the correct size.
The problem is that some generic flash devices have a controller chip that people can 'ajust settings' even setting the available space to more than can be included. (Yes I have done some research on that!)
This is the con of those controller chips. A pro however is that you can use a tool to easily partition the drive and each partition can have its own public and private part.
I have a 2GB drive (reported as 4GB) which I now have partitions into 2 1GB partitions for testing and playing purposes. A special driver allows my PC to fully use both partitions.
But, as prices drop I now can buy a genuine 16GB flash drive for only 53Euro! (PEAK III)
Usually I don't eject the plug until computer is completely down. In few other cases i'm allway waiting until windows XP component told me, that the plug can be eject safely.
OK, I need to check for caching and journailing.
On my HP XW 4400 I use allway the frontsided ports. My laptop @home have only 2 backsided USB 1.1 ports. On this ports I use an active USB-hub, because this ports are really underpowered for a Western Digital Passport 250GB.
Last time I'd used TBP on the XW 4400 for hours. Receiving, writing sending. At last I'd closed TBP and some other programs, shoot down the computer. As computer turned his power of, I'd pulled the plug. On next Start of TBP parts of the maske was damaged. The navigation on top was written in black "Times New Roman" on the desktop's background. But TBP got connection to the mailserver and got mails. It was possible to close TBP in this moment by shortcut (Atl+F4).
So I need to run a new Installation and copy the profile and email foldes to the new path.
But you are right. First I shall observe, if this error is replicable. And it would be of topcal interest too, to know what files are damaged.
THX - I'll try to get good answers first.
You might find something as simple as running chkdsk each time you mount the drive will alert you to when something bad has happened on the previous dismount, and/or assure you that you have a good starting point for that session. If there is an error in the file system, using the file system without fixing the error can sometimes make things worse.
You might also experiment with using the "Safe to remove" exercise before you shutdown the computer, to see whether it returns immediately or has a long delay or finds some files still open.
If you are interested, you could use Process Explorer from Microsoft's Sysinternals to watch the various processes as they shut down; there are lots of interesting things going on behind the scenes.
There are housekeeping chores that happen after TBP closes, behind the scenes. If you shut down the computer while that was happening, it could cause problems occasionally, though normally it happens quite quickly and you'd need to be very unlucky to get it to fail.
Looks like you understand about USB ports being underpowered. Occasionally people find that the front ports on computers are less reliable than the back ports, or vice versa.
You could make a backup more often for a while, to make it easier to restore when things do break, but also to identify which files change and when.
MC
I'm still having trouble using USB HD's and flash drives with Vista, it seems to seize them up and I lost 2 Notebook Hard Drives on it, my 1394 Hard Drive works fine though.
I'm using XP - if it's not possible to downgrade to W2K.
;-)))
Otmar
We like to blame vista
Vista acts funny- evidenced by my pnotes that wouldn't run in vista because it was compressed, but ran perfectly fine in win xp.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world