Re: USB "delayed write failed" Anyone knows why ?

Frank Slootweg <[email protected]>
Newsgroups alt.comp.os.windows-xp,alt.windows7.general
Organization NOYB
Message-ID <[email protected]>
[Disclaimer: Here goes nothing! :-)]

R.Wieser <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> On a machine runnung XPsp3 :
> 
> A while ago  tried to copy a couple of 1...4 GB files to an USB stick, and 
> it threw the "delayed write failed" error (after a couple of hundred MByte), 
> after which the machine froze and I had to power-cycle it to get it to 
> respond again (not even the task-manager wanted to come up).

  A quick Google search (see below) reveals that besides the basic error
("Windows-Delayed Write Failed"), the system reports which file
had/'caused' the error. If so, was that a file on the USB stick or on
a/the hard drive?

  If on the USB stick, did you test the USB stick for errors? (I have
Windows 11, so my built-in tools are limited :-(, but AFAIR, Windows XP
still had 'sector' scan tools.)

> A bit of googeling gave me the answer : unticking "Enable write caching on 
> the disk" - even though that was in a section that was grayed out because 
> its parent, "Optimize for performance", wasn't selected ("Optimize for quick 
> removal" was).
> 
> No, the question is not why I had to untick something in a grayed-out 
> section, don't worry. :-)
> 
> My question is even worse than that :
> 
> Does anyone know (or have a link to an MS article to) why that the "delayed 
> writing" (which I assume was still doing its job) causes such a big problem 
> ?

  With "such a big problem", do you mean the machine freezing, which is
indeed a big problem, or something else?

  The (first) document I found, indeed also talks about a hang, but that
involved a file on the HDD.

'Error message on Windows XP, "Windows-Delayed Write Failed, windows was
 enable to save all the data for the file'
<https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/error-message-on-windows-xp-windows-delayed-write/11545d85-783e-40cd-beeb-c31997661e64>
(searched on "delayed write failed windows xp")
(The green "[ (V) Answer ]" bar in that document implies that a hard
drive error was the cause, but the OP never specifically confirmed
that.)

> And don't worry, its just curiosity.  There is nothing hanging on the 
> answer.

  Phew! :-)
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