>>Hi Hilmar,
>>
>>Both the points are new to me. Mainly from Oracle Background.
>>Flush help is clear but I need some clarification on your second point and how to do it. Please elaborate.
>
>When reading data, the operating system usually keeps some data in cache. WhenIn some cases, the operating system may also have a cache for writing - in other words, data is not immediately saved to disk. This is dangerous for data corruption. I don't know how to disable it - and it probably depends on the operating system. Perhaps somewhere in properties of the hard disk. I think Windows 98 doesn't have the option for a write cache, but Windows 2000 does - but I am not sure.

Hilmar,

A small 'tweak' to the explanation...
Write cache is a hardware thing that, thankfully, can be turned off/on by software.
When write cache is ON then the HD controller reports back a successful write as soon as it has cached the data in its OWN on-board cache. While it will write the actual data very soon thereafter a failure of the HD or a sudden power off will cause the data to be lost.
With write cache turned OFF then the HD will only report that the data has been written when it has actually been written to the physical HD.

cheers