Windows-Delayed Write Failed error for external drive

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Windows-Delayed Write Failed error for external drive

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jaydubva

Newbie

16. March 2006 @ 09:30

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i just got a ultra hard disk enclosure and after tyring to access any files (mp3, iso) the operation being performed stopped as if the file it was accessing dissappeared and the following message appeared

WINDOWS-DELAYED WRITE FAILED

windows was unable to same all the data for the file :\$Mft. the data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection please try to save this file elsewhere.

I've used the enclosure with 2 seperate drives, a 120 gig and 300 gig both seagate. i'm sure i'm doing everything right when connecting the drive to the enclosure and connecting the enclosure the my pc. one thing i've noticed is that the website i oreder the enclosure from (tigerdirect.com) says the it is ata 133 and 100 compatible but the manual only say ata 133. i'm not and expert on drive types so i'm kind of confused there.

any advice any of you can give is welcome. thankyou

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The_OGS

Senior Member

16. March 2006 @ 13:13

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Hi jaydubva,
The ATA IDE standard DMA 5 (Ultra100) is universal, while 'Ultra133' is I belive a Maxtor proprietary format. Their drives claim this speed, but other HD manufacturers and motherboards don't technically support it. This means only that Maxtor drives aren't really any faster (although they would have you assume that they are).
Anyway 100/133 doesn't matter, they're all the same.
Removable drives traditionally have write-caching disabled. This is done from within Windows, and prevents loss of data in the event the external device suffers a sudden power loss.
It is only recently that write-caching is considered 'safe' in home computing (I mean, in the early 90's it wasn't) It's true I know, I am ancient ;^(
Anyway, disable write-caching right away.
That missing file is from the Windows hidden volume data (data security info). It's NTFS right?
If you have files on the drive and it has become damaged, it should repair okay. Perform error-checking, from
My Computer > DRIVE > Properties > Tools > Error Checking. Check now.
It shouldn't say you must reboot, but it might.
Note: all NTFS volumes should be checked at least ~1/month (it's true!) So make sure yours are all fine.
I see PCs sometimes this has never been done, going back to 2004 (or 2003 etc!) Yeesh.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Regards

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