better yet, load with /X to disable write cache and never worry about it!

there is also 'shutdown' utility from blacklight, 'shutdown s' will fush cache (smarterdrive+ncache2) and do a shutdown with atx.

http://dosprograms.info.tt/download/shut12.zip

You are supposed to press CTRL-ALT-DEL before shutting down. I ECHO a reminder to do this at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT.

I've never did anything special when powering off the computer and I always used some disk caching program (smartdrv, pc-cache...). Just turn the switch OFF

Back in the day you actually had to "park" some hard drives before you turned the machine off, by issuing a park command in DOS.

I think that was only necessary when the machine was to be moved?

Only when moved.

I might have made a mistake on smartdrive in terminating the emulator for a disk reboot backup when the rebooting started(screengot jumbled up) before smartdrive got the chance to flush it's caches to disk:S

Yes, if write-caching is enabled, then without the /C switch, you'll have original content instead of updated content; or in some cases, directory entries created but no backing file or incomplete FAT links, etc.

Windows 3.11 doesn't use smartdrv at all if "32-bit File Access" is enabled, it uses its own 32-bit protected mode caching driver. Same goes for Windows 9x by default.

Smartdrv should automatically flush the write cache when a command is complete (when the DOS prompt reappears), unless the "/N" switch is used. So technically if the system is sitting at a DOS prompt, it should be safe to turn off. Honestly the write cache under an emulated environment is more hassle then its worth, particularly if the host OS is handling it anyway. FWIW, I always turn it off in modern versions of Windows for computers that don't have a battery backup, you WILL lose data otherwise.

NJRoadfan wrote:

Smartdrv should automatically flush the write cache when a command is complete (when the DOS prompt reappears), unless the "/N" switch is used.

This.

SMARTDRV will only use delayed writes with the /N switch.
Thus its safe to turn off your machine anytime* with SMARTDRV loaded unless you load the /N switch, in which case you should wait a few seconds or flush the write cache manually with the /C switch.

*anytime assumes that the machine isn't actively writing to the disk.