!#7# Flush Cache Command Failure and Hard Drive Corruption

!±8± Flush Cache Command Failure and Hard Drive Corruption

In computing, cache is the temporary storage area that is responsible for holding frequently accessed data to offer rapid data access. In more technical terms, cache represents the collection of data that duplicates original stored data, when the original data is comparatively expensive to compute or fetch. Sometimes, you might need to flush this cache. Windows permits doing so by using flush cache command. This command can be used through command prompt. But if you issue this command on a large hard disk in some particular conditions, the hard disk might get corrupted and your data might get inaccessible. In such situations, it becomes crucial that you have valid data backup or else you'll fail to restore data, whereas, in case of any backup concerns, you can use hard drive recovery software.

Your drive might get corrupted in following set of conditions:

1. You are using a large disk
2. The hard disk has a 48-bit LBA (Logical Block Address) enabled
3. You issue flush cache command that fails to be issued
4. You enter the shutdown state or Hibernate state

This hard disk issue is specific to Windows XP (Home and Professional Edition) based systems.

LBA or Logical Block Addressing is the general technique used for specifying the location of data blocks that are stored on computer storage devices, including hard disks. LBA address is ATA can be 48-bit wide, as a result of which a hard disk can be of 128 GiB or 128 PiB.

However, to solve the specific HDD corruption issue, you need to follow any of these methods:

1. To prevent such events occur in future, you should install latest service pack available for Windows XP
2. Try running chkdsk to detect and repair HDD corruption issues
3. If chkdsk cannot repair the hard disk, you should reformat the hard disk and restore lost data from backup

After reformatting the HDD, if backup fails to restore complete information, you should opt for hard drive recovery applications that serve as valid tools of data recovery. Such Hard Drive Recovery Software come built with interactive interface and advanced recovery features.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a comprehensive hard drive recovery tool to recover lost data from Windows 7 (currently in RC1), Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000. These are read-only application, specifically designed to offer safe, efficient and complete recovery results. It supports FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems.