Charles Angelich wrote:
>
> One problem I had was being too 'comfortable' while
> using Basic Linux and forgot to unmount a floppy.
> The floppy was totally scrambled, everything on it
> was lost (to me)

This is certainly an issue with floppies (I've done it
myself).  The problem is that disk writes are buffered
and it can take a wee while for the disk to sync.  If
you pull the floppy before it is fully updated, you
could have a mess.  The umount command forces a sync.

> and the realization that I _could_  have been using
> a hard drive partition and done the same thing really
> rattled me.

Not really an issue with HD.  Updating is much faster than
with a floppy.  Moreover, CTRL-ALT-DEL shuts things down
in an orderly fashion (no sync problem).  However, if you
start a long write to HD and *quickly* punch the reset
button, you might get a problem.

> I hesitate to mention this 'problem' I had to potential
> users of any Linux but I also worry they, like me, will
> think they are in DOS and just press reset without a
> proper unmount and shutdown first. :-\

Pressing reset is a no-no.  CTRL-ALT-DEL is the way to go.

Cheers,
Steven

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