The ext2 filesystem in linux is mounted in asynchronous mode by default. This means that when you write something to the drive, it will be held in memory until the OS gets around to writing it to disk. It does this for performance reasons. If you shutdown your machine by just turning it off, you don't give the OS a chance to actually write that data out to disk, risking file corruption, or entire filesystem corruption. However, if you use one of the new journaling filesystems, like ReiserFS or ext3, you won't have to worry so much about it. Journaling filesystems keep a journal around of what files it needs to still update. In the event of a crash, it can go back and look at that journal to figure out what needed to be done when it crashed. You might still lose data from files recently saved, but it pretty much eliminates the possibility of corruption of the whole filesystem. You should always do a proper shutdown regardless of what filesystem you are using. > -----Original Message----- > From: Terry Houle [mailto:houle at citilink.com] > Sent: Monday, December 24, 2001 9:28 AM > To: TCLUG Mail List > Subject: [TCLUG] Linux shutdown > > > Probably a dump question but I got some Linux decals that say > "Warning:Turning off the power or pressing reset switch could > lose contents of hard drive. If you must restart this > system, please get help or use Ctrl-Alt-Del". My question is > if Linux is more of a problem than Windows if shutdown > improperly? Sometimes in Windows even the Ctrl-Alt-Del > won't work and I have to reset. I know it is not good but > the only option in Windows when it hangs up. I know I will > get the Linux is not Windows, but wondering if there is difference? > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. > Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-> linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >