Timeline for Why is it not recommended to shut down a computer "brutally" (power switch)? [duplicate]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
20 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 20, 2015 at 10:31 | comment | added | jamesdlin | @Pete Becker: Even in the days of MS-DOS, pulling the plug while disks were writing could corrupt files. | |
| Jan 20, 2015 at 9:10 | history | closed |
Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 kinokijuf DavidPostill♦ user Matthew Williams |
Duplicate of What damage will powering down instead of shutting down do? | |
| Jan 20, 2015 at 8:43 | answer | added | JJ Joseph | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jan 20, 2015 at 8:16 | comment | added | Jens | Also note that with today's ACPI shutdown feature, you actually can shut down using the power button. If the OS has support for catching the ACPI signal (like FreeBSD, Windows, Linux,...) this initiates the OS's shutdown sequence. | |
| Jan 20, 2015 at 0:21 | comment | added | phyrfox | Actually, for a modern computer, I'd sum it up like this: assuming you've saved all your files, a power failure is most likely acceptable in most cases, although it may shorten your power supply's life a bit. It's still never a good idea to unplug your computer when it tells you not to. Windows updates, for example, or flashing the BIOS. Interrupting those processes could leave your OS or even your hardware inoperable. That's probably the biggest risk you can take, purposefully interrupting core updates. | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 22:42 | comment | added | AStopher | @AndreasBonini It entirely depends how you use your computer. I've had to do data recovery before (last year in fact) to recover the data on my parents' computer as they 'pulled the plug' as they were inpatient and Windows was taking a long time to update. If you do not use your drive for much and it suddenly has an intensive task then you turn the power off, your drive will likely corrupt data. | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 22:23 | comment | added | Joshua Taylor | @AndreasBonini "I've never ever had corrupted files, or hardware problems." Just to be a pedant, you've never had corrupted files that you've noticed or that had a big impact (e.g., are you sure that no continually written log files or temporary files were corrupted?), or that couldn't be repaired when the system booted against (those "system wasn't properly shut down, checking for errors..." messages) or hardware that completely stopped functioning (e.g., lots of hardware, and especially storage, has built in mechanisms for detecting and working around damaged parts). | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 20:24 | comment | added | Andreas Bonini | Let me point out that the potential side effects of "pulling the plug", while technically correct, are typically greatly overblown. I've "brutally" shut down my computer countless times. I've never ever had corrupted files, or hardware problems. Not even once. In over 15 years. | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 19:21 | answer | added | Richard Howes | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 18:38 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jan 20, 2015 at 9:10 | |||||
| Jan 19, 2015 at 18:20 | comment | added | Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 | Perhaps also see: Can a power failure or forceful shutdown damage hardware? | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 17:46 | history | migrated | from electronics.stackexchange.com (revisions) | ||
| Jan 19, 2015 at 17:43 | answer | added | Jacen | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 15:35 | comment | added | Spehro Pefhany | SSDs might be an issue similar to HDDs. They write by erasing data in large blocks and re-writing the new data, so if that operation is not completed for the block there would be data corruption. The O/S may be smart enough to recover from that, but it's not 'nice', and eventually you might have an unrecoverable error. | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 15:27 | comment | added | Pete Becker | For consumer devices, it's actually the other way around: with MS-DOS you could just pull the plug; when Windows took over you had to learn to shut down properly. | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 15:05 | answer | added | LvB | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 14:20 | answer | added | Joe | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 14:18 | answer | added | jippie | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 14:17 | answer | added | Majenko | timeline score: 19 | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 14:09 | history | asked | Mister Mystère | CC BY-SA 3.0 |