Comment Re:Mac OS X - quality which Microsoft can never ma (Score 1) 2071
Journaling filesystems in widespread use log filesystem metadata only, NOT actual file data. So if the OS has not flushed file data out of its cache, and you unplug the device, the file data itself could be in a bad state, though the filesystem structures should be okay or recoverable from the journal.
If you have no open files on the device, the chances of this are slim (esp as time passes)...but it's hard to know for sure when everything in the cache has been flushed to disk.
You would have to sync the filesystem before unplugging to be sure this wouldn't happen. But then, you might as well just inform the OS properly that you're about the remove the device :)
If you have no open files on the device, the chances of this are slim (esp as time passes)...but it's hard to know for sure when everything in the cache has been flushed to disk.
You would have to sync the filesystem before unplugging to be sure this wouldn't happen. But then, you might as well just inform the OS properly that you're about the remove the device
