Will Manual Shut Down Hurt Your Pc?

[Sai 0]

Using the reset button, or the plug, will cause problems in the long term. Effectively each time you do so there is a small chance you may corrupt part of your hard disk, this could be a vital part of windows which you may need to repair -- or be forced into reformating the pc.If you do it ALOT, and do not run the disk checker (we all hate to, it takes FOREVER); then you run the risk of causing serious problems to your hard disk. Usually the boot sector goes completely, forcing you to buy a new HD to boot from so you can get your old data back.

[TypoMage 0]

When my sister did that to mine I imediatley starting having problems. But luckily those are fixed now.

[Unregistered 012 0]

Well, i personally dont think that it hurts your computer. But it is better to do it through the start menu cause like others here have said, it is safer for the programs because they have a proper chance to shut down, and save what they were working on. I never shut down my computer manually though. I just dont like to. But i dont think that it will hurt your computer. I really only turn it off that way if it freezes or something like that.

[kawasu 0]

i tell myself its fine to manual shut down all the time, yet it has caused my pc to totally malfunction on a number of occasions. my pc would freeze, so bam i shut it down. next time i boot it up my windows install is corrupt and i need to re-install it... -_-v its happened atleast twice, and is very frustrating. i do not recommend manual shutdowns, but sometimes they're just needed. what i don't get, is how it's different to resetting a pc. i reset my pc far more than i ever do a manual shutdown and it seems to work just fine. from personal expierence, i'd reset it (if you can) then manual shutdown in dos mode. don't ask me why, but i've found it to be the safer option.

[haxored 0]

There's a big confusion here...What do you mean by manual shutdown??Some of the replies refer to Pressing the power button and wait for the computer to shutdown... while some refers to Holding your power button until the power is off... which are two different things.Referring to Manual Shutdown #1 (Pressing the button): It doesn't hurt your computer since it is just the same with going to 'Start>Turn Off'... its just a shortcut button!*Referring to Manual Shutdown #1 (Press and holding the button): This will sometimes result in data corruption, why? Because during the normal shutdown process, Hardrive Read/Write heads are being parked on the SafeZone. Doing this will just leave the head on top of the plate destroying some precious data.*if it is set in your ControlPanel>PowerManagement or in the BIOS.

[Jimmy 0]

Referring to Manual Shutdown #1 (Press and holding the button): This will sometimes result in data corruption, why? Because during the normal shutdown process, Hardrive Read/Write heads are being parked on the SafeZone. Doing this will just leave the head on top of the plate destroying some precious data.

I would say we are talking about this one...And I would agree with you it is bad, you made a very good point about the hard drives, but these are not the only parts to suffer. Fans can lose life by being instantly shut off and also the main chip doesn't do too good having instant power / usage changes.
Software can get corrupted too, with files being unproperly saved, just cut off, things being accessed...!

Its just not great for the comp - pressing the button once to turn off is fine!

[iGuest 3]

is it true that if your computer is in shutdown process and you unplugged the power because it look like its frozen can they lost the files?