POTENTIAL DATA LOSS WITH USB MEMORY STICKS

[Martin Phillips]

An important issue has been discovered when using QM files on a USB
memory stick in a Windows environment. This affects all use of USB
files, not just those systems that are entirely resident on the USB
device.

It appears that when Windows enters standby or hibernate state, the
USB device is taken offline without waiting for any data in the write
cache to be flushed to the device. On restarting the system, the
unwritten data is lost.

The impact of this is that the final few writes may not be completed
and hence the file may be corrupt. This is most likely to affect QM
installed on a laptop but is equally applicable to desktop systems.

The work-around is simple, though annoying. Users should exit from the
application and then use the "safely remove hardware" option of
Windows to unload the USB memory device before putting the system into
standby or hibernate mode.

Please note that this problem affects USB devices only. Applications
using files on the non-removeable hard disk do not need to be shutdown
when using standby or hibrenate mode.


Martin Phillips, Ladybridge Systems

[Ashley Chapman]

2008/5/12 Martin Phillips <MartinP...@ladybridge.com>:

Martin,

I came across this problem a while ago as I mentioned before; albeit
with OpenInsight. I was not the only person working to resolve the
problem, so I do not have all of the details. From memory, we tried
various fixes for Windows, and a BIOS upgrade. Eventually, we were
able to solve the problem, and moved on.

I will try to make contact with the people involved, to see what can
be remembered of the resolution.

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> Martin Phillips, Ladybridge Systems
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--
Ashley Chapman

[Ashley Chapman]

Martin

2008/5/13 Ashley Chapman <ashley....@billabong-services.co.uk>:

I've had no joy contacting those involved. They've moved onto new
jobs etc. Sorry.

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>> Martin Phillips, Ladybridge Systems
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> Ashley Chapman
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--
Ashley Chapman