Linux writing to USB Drives

[rowck001]

How does Linux write to USB flash Disks? Does it only write or modify data when the Unmount command is issued?

When My 256MB USB/MP3 player is inserted - it mounts OK and I can transfer data to and from it. The files transferred show up in nautilus immediately even though it is only USB 1.1.

Then when I unmount the player it takes the access light on my USB hub a proportional amount of time compared to the size of the data transferred to extinguish and let go of the stick.

Removing the disk before the light goes out obviously corrupts the data and doesn't show up on next mount.

Basically I don't have any problems with above behaviour but just curious about the difference between linux and Windows, where Windows takes a while to write the USB data but then releases the disk quickly on USB removal requests.

Is this weird or normal USB Linux behaviour?

[marlowe]

i think it's normal. it probably saves the data in a buffer and flushes that buffer when you unmount the device. come to think about it when i use my mp3 player it does the same thing. also i think it flushes the buffer by itself after a while.