Apps crashing: can this corrupt data on my hard drive?

decimator · 30 Nov 2007 at 10:17

I'm using Windows XP sp 2 and I do all the usual maintenance (regular defrags etc) but I do sometimes get crashing in games and I remember reading somewhere that if an application crashes while Windows is writing to the hard disk it can corrupt the data on it, does anyone know if this is still the case and if so, what can be done about it?

Uhtred · 30 Nov 2007 at 10:25

shouldn't happen if you're using NTFS

decimator · 30 Nov 2007 at 11:04

Yep, I am using NTFS, and now that you mention it I think I remember reading that it's better at recovering from that kind of thing than FAT32, but I don't know whether I would have to run checkdisk to get that.

Uhtred · 30 Nov 2007 at 12:45

If ntfs needs scanning your computer will run it on boot up so you shouldn't need to worry. You can tell it to scan manually if you are worried, probably not a bad idea from time to time

Amonlym · 30 Nov 2007 at 13:25

if your ram is trashed, and is causing the app crashes it is entirely possible that data written to hdd will be corrupt, but it wont be due to the app's themselves, or the crash event. - i think your safe.

decimator · 30 Nov 2007 at 18:02

OK, thanks people, I didn't know that about checkdisk starting automatically, it hasn't happened so I guess I'm OK. I think my RAM's OK too - I've only had crashes on one program, Unreal tournament 3, so it's probably just due to bugs in the game.