reboot without unmounting disks

[gcb]

okay...l have a problem...my brother refuses to use linux, so every time he wants to use the computer, he reboots into windows...now, the problem is, he will NOT shutdown linux first...he just throws the reset switch...i've written down how to reboot the computer properly & he never does....what exactly CAN happen to my disks if they're not unmounted properly?..what kind of damage or data loss can result?..what can i do to make my brother listen to me? well...that'll probably never happen...anyways...thanks for your help...

[Craig McPherson]

1. Power down computer.
2. Open case.
3. Unplug reset switch from motherboard.
4. Close case.
5. Turn on computer.

Files that are opened for writing are the only files that could potentially be damaged. Damage to files that weren't even open, or were open read-only is impossible. Even then, only files that were actually in the process of being written are likely to actually be destroyed. File writes can be delayed by 30 seconds or more due to asynchronous disk access, so file writes that seemed to have completed successfully can still be lost if the system is shut down before the write actually happens. If you save ultra_important_final_termpaper.txt and then immediately shut off the system, it's likely that the document won't even have begun to written to yet -- you'll be left with the last version of it that you saved. If you save it, wait a few seconds, and then power off the system, you've likely interrupted the writting of the file which means it could very well be destroyed.

Use a journaling filesystem and you won't have to worry about this stuff.

[jon787]

Try showing him what happens when you improperly shutdown a computer.

Basically erase one or two of his files and if he asks what happens say they must have gotten erased when I used the power button to shutdown the computer.

Make sure they are files he will notice missing like MP3s or saved game files. If you don't want to be that mean just hide the files somewhere else on the HD.

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: jon787 ]

[slacker_x]

if(age_of_brother > your_age)
{
while(you_using_computer = 0)
{
shutdown -h now;
}
}
else
{
if(brother_shutdown_technique != shutdown -h now)
{
while(brother != screaming_in_pain)
{
kick_***(little_brother);
}
}
}


That is GPL code, so feel free to redistribute :-P