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I'm wondering if I take a chance on losing/corrupting data by putting the computer to sleep with the flash drives still connected.
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I'm unsure how much clearer folk can make this but if all you copies are connected to the PC and not backed up in safe locations then all it takes is some bad thing to happen to this computer and it's all gone.
My answer is yes, absolutely and it's always our choice.
Bob
Thanks - I back everything up like crazy, with even hard copies (of a writing project) being stored in a safe. Good to know not to sleep it with the flash drives in though.
As you know, most USB drives can become corrupt if you just yank them out. Thankfully that's a rare event so folk don't suffer this too often. But those that don't keep backups (by the way, backup is when you have 2 good copies so 3 or more on 3 or more devices is considered the norm for backup of what we can't lose) tend to lose a lot of their stuff.
OK the longer story. Since we know that there is a change USB drives can be corrupted by yanking them out, then sleep is almost the same but a little safer than the YANK. Why? When everything is working then Windows will flush all data out to the drives so a power or YANK won't result in loss.
However, there is still a chance of trouble so for me, I only attach things I am using.
Bob
No problem at all. I've got a backup USB-stick that's always connected. It survives hibernate and shutdown perfectly, and I've got no reason to suspect that it's different with sleep.
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