A common thread here which, seems to relate to my particular problem with DWF, is the 'USB' device question.

Problems associated with DWF, eg after DWF occurs and locks my laptop, then need to disconnect USB hub in order to get PC (fairly new Dell Latitude D830 with XP SP-2, not ready to risk SP-3 yet) to boot.

Not sure what the circumstances that lead up (or down) to the DWF except that it seems to occur more during overnite backup attempts to remote HDs connected thru the USB connection.

Not a PC geek so have no idea what kind of Xs and Os are effected, but the USB connection (pun intended) seems to be near the heart of the problem.

If any ideas out there would really appreciate the followup.

Ps: Would never hold my breath for MS. They seem to be only interested in 'sales'.

Having been driven mad by my sata II WD 500g internal hdd spiting out DWF messages after a couple of days of use (mostly brought on using bit torrent) I think I've got it sorted ...

I have an ASRock dual vsta motherboard which has 2 x sata I and 1 x sata II ports on it and tried every relevent (and some damn right hopefull) solutions I managed to calm the problem but not solve it.

I read about buying a new card to run it off and talk of tech level problems with incompatible mobo components ... having run out of other ideas I simply plugged the hdd into the "wrong hole" i.e the spare sata I port and touch wood its been fine so far.

so in summary when there's not a simple tweak or obvious software clash, If the problem came on slowly it's probably physical failure, if it happened in the first few days it's likely it's compatiblity

imho ofc :p

Greetings all,

I've had the same thing with the whole Delayed Write Failed, even though I've rebuilt my machine three times after it first started a few weeks ago. I noticed it started after I downloaded SP3 for XP Pro and updated my ATI X800 drivers. Anytime I tried to download large files or install anything (like C&C 3) big, it would pop up several of those windows. Of course, it kept going, but there's data corruption. I checked the registry entry for LargeSystemCache and it was initially 0 so I tried 1...no luck...changed it back to 0 on next reboot. I also noticed that if it rebooted on its own because of the freezing on all programs, it would get to hardware detection before going into XP and just stop right there, CPU light just lit up like a christmas tree, eventually going off but NumLock wouldn't turn off so I knew the system was locked up tighter than a safe deposit box in a safe in Fort Knox. I'd reboot it manually and it'd be fine.

HD: 80gb WD PATA/IDE drive (brand new, not 3 weeks old and I took it out of the bag)
Video: ATI X800 w/ latest Catalyst Control Center + driver
MB: Gigabyte K8U

Giving the UltimateBootCD a shot and praying it stops this error...and yes, I fully agree that MS & ATI needs to start working on something that'll work as a fix, not a work-around. Wait, take that back, they should've already been working on this and had SOMETHING out there for the countless people that are going through this. I mean, seriously, it's only all over the web and probably saturating MS and ATI support forums.

Check your write caching & safe removal settings for your HDs. You can right click on any drive in windows explorer go down to properites, click, go to hardware tab - shows all your drives, click drive - properties - policy tab. check 'write caching & safe removal' settings. Perhaps thats it.

SOLVED for ME!!! Code 51 + delayed write failed error with my RAID 1 setup

Config : Q9650
8Gb Corsair XMS2
XFX8800 GT Alphadog
Promise TX2300 + 2x WD RE2 500GB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500Gb
Vista 64

Here are my trial & errors before I came up with a config that seem to solve the problem

-First I removed the RAM and swapped with 2x1Gb thinking that it could have been an addressing pb because of 32Bit drivers, problem still occurred, I reinstalled XP with SP3, but still same pb.

-Then I disabled write cache, NCQ without any success.

-I recreated the mirror partition, without any success.

-Finally I reformatted the partition but NOT with the default cluster size, I specified 8Kb blocks and it seems that the pb is SOLVED !!!

- Now I reinstalled vista 64 and i still don't get the error anymore.

All this is still under observation, i'm verifying the system logs often and it's been 2 days now that the problem did not occur. I'll try some more stress tests, video editing, archiving etc... and will keep u posted about the results.

Hope my finding helps.

Greetings all!

This problem has clearly been around for a while and it is also clear there is no obvious solution! My problem only started when I installed a 500gb hard drive. It had been running fine until then. System is as follows:

Asus M2N32SLI deluxe MB
Nvidia 9600 GT video
Seagate 250 SATA drive
Seagate 500 SATA drive
Windows XP Home SP3

The larger drive has only just been installed and almost from the word go has exhibited problems. Music and video files were copied to it and games installed on it. When playing a game, it will lock up and come up with the DWF message. The machine becomes usable again, but the drive disappears. It reappears when rebooted.

When playing a video, moving the slider to fast forward the film results in media player locking up. It has also resulted in media player playing the film but the system then locks up and has to be physically turned off to do anything with it.

I have upgraded the system BIOS and tried everything suggested in this forum and by MS all to no avail.

Looks as though I shall just have to keep investigating to try and find a solution although a couple of things have occurred to me whilst writing this:-

I might try re-partitioning to create 2 x 250 gb drives.
Looking for updated SATA drivers - although I have 2 drives they are not configured as RAID

Unless anyone else has any bright ideas, I will keep you posted.

I'm not sure if we will ever sort out the DWF problem. And, it is my opinion that, Microsoft just did'nt do enough to sort out the many variables while using their product. Sometime ago, I had this DWF problem with Windows 98 (s.e) and with the assistance of a Microsoft
Tech, the problem was fixed after many steps. I also noticed, while using Windows XP Pro (service pack 3) with Automatic Updates .... afterwards, I received a DWF.
I then used a system restore program (rollback rx) which restored Windows back to it's original state, removing the updates. I can't remember which updates were installed during the Automatic update process ... But, the DWF problem has not returned. I used to hear that, you should always update but, I question ..... which ones ?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174
Good tips here for moving large files to exterrnal devices Write/Delay error messages. PAJ692

IT was bad last 30 days. Cause I had bought a Western Digital 500 GB My Book... And i always get a "Delayed Write Failed" message... for one month I am browsing web for solutions... And anything didn't work.. But now I use all usb things on my pc without problem... Let me tell how it happened..

"Delayed Write Error" Solution...!
I used and installed a recent XP version... And Genuine/legal one... I made all updates from Microsoft site including SP3... Then I set up my BIOS to OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS.... Then all problems dissapeared... For one week I didn't get any error message...

Everyting is fine .. Just we don't know how to have them...

Hello All,

Seems I have new wrinkle to throw into the mix.

I have a USB SATA external. Seagate 1.5TB

It had been working fine until late last week.
Last night I could still get in and see the directory tree. A directory in particular called "Complete" would sometimes open and show its contents and sometimes show nothing. Other times, the drive would just not be recognized.

NOW, when I turn the external drive on, the drive spins up. Maybe 20 seconds go by.
Windows pops up with a "Delayed Write Fail" message. The machine shuts off.

I tried to run a few programs on it chkdsk, fixboot, fixmbr, nortons systemworks
and Seagtes Sea Tools. All with negative results.

Please ask me for whatever information you need to know about the drive or the results.
I'm not sure what info you want to know. It doesn't matter what machine it gets plugged
into, once the drive spins up and is recognized by windows, the pc will restart itself.

-J

I have 2 HD's- 1 IDE and 1 SATA. Its the SATA one i'm having a problem with.I used to use it normally earlier. But all of a sudden, when i turn on the PC, after a couple of minutes, i get a message saying 'Delayed Write Failed,etc...' and all my partitions of the SATA drive disappear from 'My Computer' (dont see them in the list of drives). Windows hasnt been installed on any of these partitions giving a problem, so i can access my computer as usual.My Windows is installed on the 'C' drive and the drives giving a problem are 'H' & 'I'. I have Windows SP2 installed and i dont use any display cards.I have on-board graphics.Also, please mention if there is any way to deal with this issue without having to format as the drives have movies and games on them. Somebody please help me out and i would be really grateful.