if i stop my plotter while its generating what will happen and whats the downside? is there a way to know where it stopped so i can start it again
If you use the windows plotter it tells you were it is. And you can start plotting from where it tell you it left off. If you are using the linux plotter... not really.
This is the downside. Other than that, nothing much. The miner will give an error message that it can't read the file, but it actually does.
How do you know it is still reading/using the file when it gives the error message saying it can't?
Is it confirmed that non-completed/stopped plots really are working and able to submit shares...?