dangerous situation with shutdown process

[Matthias Buelow]

Nicolas Rachinsky wrote:

>> >The track which is corrupted could contain data that wasn't written
>> >to in months.  How would the journal help?
>> 
>> I don't understand this question.
>
>The track destroyed could contain sectors which are in no way related
>to the sectors the OS is writing to.

And in what way is that related to the existence or nonexistence
of write barriers and a journal?
If you pound the disk with a hammer, it will most likely break,
no matter what strategy you're using.
That you cannot eliminate _all_ sources of error with a strategy
doesn't mean that you shouldn't implement it to minimize the number
of errors that could happen.

Besides, I always thought that (most) disks had enough power reserve
to be able to write at least one track when power goes away? Or is
that an urban myth, I don't know for sure.

mkb.