On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:30:46 +0100, Jesús Guerrero wrote:

> Even if you didn't, in my understanding, all that could cause (normally)
> is a broken file system. The effects will usually depends on whatever
> was happening at the moment, and at the fs you are using.

As he was only reading from the drive, I doubt he could have corrupted
the filesystem, let alone the partition table.

> Some mount
> options can influence this as well. To palliate the effects of a
> catastrophic plug off without having umounted before you can use the
> -osync mount option, which will enable synchronous writes (making your
> device seems slower, because writes will no longer be deferred/cached
> for a later oportunity).

However, these increase writes to the device, particularly to the FAT,
shortening the life of the drive.

I suspect you did nothing wrong and that the problem is either a
coincidental hardware failure or something the owner did to the stick
after you returned it. Convincing the owner of that is another matter.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Of all the people I've met you're certainly one of them