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Warning! Windows 8 and 10 can corrupt Multi-Boot and swappable Drives.


rloew

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Windows 8 and Windows 10 have a new "feature" called "Fast Startup", "Fast Boot", or "Hybrid Boot". This is a form of mini-Hibernate Mode.
Unlike full Hibernate, this is not documented in the Shutdown User Interface and is enabled by default.

If you Shutdown, not Restart, Windows 8 or 10, this Mode will save the File Cache in the Hibernation File.
If you then modify any of these Cached Drives using a different OS Instance, then access it again from the original OS Instance,
the Cache will not match what is on the Drive. If you then make changes, the Cache will be written to the Drive possibly corrupting it.
Windows often writes to Drives in the background, so you can corrupt a Drive even if you do not intentionally write to it.

There are numerous reports of this problem along with instructions on turning off Fast Startup on Google.

I strongly recommend that anyone using Multi-Boot or swappable Drives, including Virtual ones, disable Fast Startup if using Windows 8 or 10.
In a pinch, always select Restart, not Shutdown, when closing Windows 8 or 10 if Fast Startup has not been disabled.

For those of you not born yesterday, never put a writable Floppy Disk into a Windows 10 system. It will be corrupted even if you don't intentionally write to it.

Edited by rloew
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I learned that the hard way last year, when it killed my C2Q system two times in a row, before i recognized the problem.

Since then i disable the fast-boot right after installation.

As the setting was reset by MS like so many other things after major updates, I check this after each (1607, 1704, etc.) as well.

What i can't say is, why i did not have this problem on my AM3+ boards - i assume it has something to do with boot-order (on those systems, the Windows 10 partition is the boot-partition in BIOS, and I start XP and W98SE via BCD). But i'm not sure.

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Fast startup? Sounds kinda like an easy problem to remedy if people would just learn to be a bit more patient these days instead of expecting everything to be instant on. =/

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OT, but not much, from time to time it is good to boot DOS/Win 3.xx OS (on relatively modern/fastish hardware) to have a feeling on how a fast startup (and also a fast shutdown) should behave, i.e. NOT half-@§§edly saving the stats of a zillion services (largely unneeded BTW) on the previous (fake[1]) shutdown and then re-load the whole lot at next "fast" startup, i.e. essentially trading time removing from the (next) fast startup and adding to the (previous) slower shutdown a bunch of seconds.

jaclaz

[1] That being a fake shutdown, as RLoew :thumbup called it, a mini-hybernate mode, it can easily cause havoc :ph34r:


 


 

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10 hours ago, ragnargd said:

What i can't say is, why i did not have this problem on my AM3+ boards - i assume it has something to do with boot-order (on those systems, the Windows 10 partition is the boot-partition in BIOS, and I start XP and W98SE via BCD). But i'm not sure.

There is some mention of a Boot-Lock in Windows 10. I'm not sure how it works.

It could have just been luck.

Causing damage requires a number of things to happen.

1. You have to access an area to put it in cache.
2. You have to Shutdown, not Restart.
3. You have to write something into the cached area using another OS instance.
4. You have to return to the first OS Instance.
5. You have to write something that edits, not replaces, a Cache Block.
    Or
    You write to Files or Structures that have been replaced in step 3 and are still cached.

Not all corruption will be obvious. Damage may not show in SCANDISK.

If you work in different areas with the different OSes, damage is minimized.
If you work in a different area before going to the problem area, you may flush the Cache, preventing damage.

@jaclaz:  Quite a few seconds.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On Monday, May 08, 2017 at 8:50 PM, rloew said:

Maybe that "Terrorist Edition" remark is not so ridiculous after all.

Running Windows 10 has corrupted some of my FAT32 Partitions, even ones that I did not intentionally access.

Don't even think about putting a Floppy Disk in a machine running Windows 10.

Is this for internal floppy drives or USB external floppy drives?  I don't recall having any issues with 1.44MB external USB.  Internal drives I have a 360KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB, an old 720KB somewhere around for legacy stuff and a recently acquired 2.88MB.  Oh I also have a few LS-120 before they got discontinued. :(

I have two 8 inch floppy drives but no way to interface with modern systems but I just love staring at those disks from time to time.

Edited by 98SE
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