saving open files on shut-down

[OFSO]

Having fitted a 16Gb flash storage inside my PC (WIN-XP) - why ? because an empty connector was there - I was wondering if anyone knows of any software that would automatically (i.e. without human intercession) save either open or selected files to the drive when WIN was shut down ?

[cdtaylor_nats]

Instead of just shutting down like normal you could run a command fie that copies some files and then ends with the shutdown command.

[Milo Minderbinder]

but the command file would need to be able to identify which files were open, name them correctly and store them in the correct locatons

Only way I can see of doing it would be if every new file was initially saved under a new name on opening, so on closure those particular file names are saved, and also the default save location for the programs were changed. You'd have to do this for each program and in many cases you would not be able to do so: that function would not be present. You could change the default save location for MS Office, but then ALL office programs would save to it by default, all the time

[Bushfiva]

You can probably do this with the Group Policy editor. To add scripts to shutdown (and startup), run gpedit.msc then Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts (Startup/Shutdown) > double click on Stop system.

If that's what you're looking for, then Google will help you with the scripting itself.

[mike-wsm]

I've heard there is software that speeds up your PC by utilising the flash instead of hard disk for some applications. Whilst a disk is fast when reading a non-fragmented stream, a flash is much faster for reading random access data. This is because the disk drive has to keep moving the read head whereas the flash is all electronic.

Microsoft improves efficiency of flash memory - PC Advisor (http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/software/3261898/microsoft-improves-efficiency-of-flash-memory/)

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Not quite sure what you mean here, but the filing system will tidy up open files on orderly shutdown anyway regardless of medium.

If there's data lying around in an application, rather than the operating system, which you haven't saved, then most applications will ask "do you want to save" and delay an (orderly) shutdown until you answer, and again this is independent of medium. If you want this done automatically without human intervention then it seems to me that you've got two choices:

(a) find an option belonging to each individual application you care about that says "on shutdown, save the file I'm editing without asking me first" (I've never noticed any such options, but that doesn't mean there aren't any)

(b) write some sort of script or application or whatever that spots what's going on and answers "yes" to each application that asks you whether you want to save a file (this piece of software would have to know about each target application in some detail).

Are you asking whether anyone has already written a (b) that you can download? Not something I've heard of, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. And again, it would work just as well with disk, it's nothing to do with having a flash drive.

If you're in the middle saving a file from some application and pull the power plug, ie a disorderly shutdown, then modern operating systems (unlike early versions of Unix) should not corrupt the filing system, but you have no guarantees as to how much of the data in that particular file has been saved, and no software can make that any better. And again this is independent of medium.

[Milo Minderbinder]

"If you're in the middle saving a file from some application and pull the power plug....."
Since Windows XP, windows has supposeldy been able to cope with that.
The spiel from the M$ evangelists at the pre-launch meetings was that on pulling the plug, windows could take an immediate snapshot and preserve open document files for later recovery
In the demos they gave us it worked, and many times in real life office has produced recovered files following crashes...but I'd never like to have to rely on it
You never know with those Microsoft demos, just how much is smoke & mirrors

[OFSO]

If you're in the middle saving a file from some application and pull the power plug.....


Not a problem, as with anyone living in Spain who values their work, I have a UPS with autoshut down of WIN for when the mains fails.

Thanks for all the suggestions, they are making me consider what my original question should have been.

[mixture]

OFSO,

Do you realise how much time this would add to your shutdown routine.

A better use of your time and effort would be to script a scheduled startup to occur in the middle of the night, spend a couple of hours doing a backup to your flash drive (for your own good, please use off-the-shelf rather than trying to reinvent the wheel with batch scripts unless you know what you're doing - i.e. correct exception handling for a start ! ) and then shutdown your computer again.

Option two is to reformat your primary drive and to do software RAID1 between the data partition on your primary drive and a partition on your flash drive.

[mixture]

Not a problem, as with anyone living in Spain who values their work, I have a UPS with autoshut down of WIN for when the mains fails.

Erm right... and this backup routine you are dreaming of was going to be implemented during the shutdown routine ?

Remind me, how big is the battery in this UPS of yours ? :cool:

[mike-wsm]

Strange to hear ups-talk, so very last-century!

Here I am relaxing in an armchair using a tiny hand-held tablet and having difficulty recollecting those montrous machines of past eras...

[Background Noise]

Would 'hibernate', rather than a shut-down, do what you need?

[OFSO]

how big is the battery in this UPS of yours

About an hour, OK, so not long enough. And I do regular back-ups to my safe-location distant hard drive anyway.

Belt and braces.

Here I am relaxing in an armchair using a tiny hand-held tablet

Would that be one of those little purple heart-shaped ones ?