WHY !!! ?

[Tim]

Allegedly, on or about 16 September 2013, Reindl Harald sent:
> In case of media with limited number of write cycles (e.g. some flash
> drives) "sync" may cause life-cycle shortening.

>> I wish that sort of thing was the default, as USB flash drives, or
>> even USB-connected hard drives, are quite likely to get unplugged
>> unceremoniously, whether accidentally, or by users not realising it's
>> a bad thing to do.  

> *no* read above!

Well, I can see that's sensible for how some people use their flash
drives.  But I don't use them that way.  Knowing that they have a
limited life, my use tends to be write a bunch of files to a drive that
I want on it, and leave it alone.  I don't really work on the files on
the drive, I don't do much in the way of deleting files on it.

>> And external drives with power supplies have another
>> point of failure - the power supplies being unplugged

> the power supply of the PC can also be unplugged....

Though such cables tend to be tougher to remove, than some of the power
cables with USB hard drives.  Such as micro 4-pin DIN connectors, with
thick cables.  Or boxy plugpacks that go straight into the mains outlet,
but are probably badly squeezed between things in a multi-way
powerboard.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
Linux 3.9.10-100.fc17.x86_64 #1 SMP Sun Jul 14 01:31:27 UTC 2013 x86_64

All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted, there is no point
trying to privately email me, I will only read messages posted to the
public lists.

George Orwell's '1984' was supposed to be a warning against tyranny, not
a set of instructions for supposedly democratic governments.