Shutting down

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Guest

What is the worst thing that could possibly happen to my laptop (a sony vaio)
if it is repeatedly turned off straight from the power button every time
rather than going to start, shut down, etc.? Like if it just switched off
straight away at the power button without coming out of windows?
 
Shazz said:
What is the worst thing that could possibly happen to my laptop (a
sony vaio) if it is repeatedly turned off straight from the power
button every time
rather than going to start, shut down, etc.? Like if it just switched
off straight away at the power button without coming out of windows?
Click to expand...

Doing that is like stopping your car by ramming it into a brick wall
instead of using the brakes. Sooner or later you will corrupt the data
on your hard drive - your files and the operating system.

Malke
 
Apart from losing data, can it cause any permanent damage to the actual
computer that would not be fix-able?
 
Shazz said:
Apart from losing data, can it cause any permanent damage to the
actual computer that would not be fix-able?
Click to expand...

Unlikely, but I'm certainly not going to give you a 100% guarantee about
it. Shutting down that way is foolish.

Malke
 
Shazz said:
Apart from losing data, can it cause any permanent damage to the actual
computer that would not be fix-able?
Click to expand...

Generally user data is far more valuable than the hardware, so the worst
thing is that you'll lose the data and/or waste a lot of time trying to
recover it. It is *possible* that you might also physically damage
sectors on the hard disk, making recovery harder (and more expensive if you
have to use a recovery service).

Sometimes forcing a shutdown is the only thing you can do to shut off a
badly hung system, but doing so regularly is not good practice.

If you're experiencing such system hangs, it's a much better idea to back up
your data and fix the real problem.

HTH
-pk
 
Just turning off the computer via the power switch can set you up for hard
drive damage - under the right circumstances, as a customer of mine has
proven over the years. He insists on keeping his towers under his desk where
he keeps on kicking it with his size thirteen's.

When you turn off a computer the accepted way, the hard drive will park the
read/write heads in a safe position in the park zone. There is no
information there to be damaged if the computer sustains a severe bump. The
heads themselves may still be damaged though.

If you just "turn off" the computer, using the power switch, the read/write
heads are likely to be in a position where data is stored. If the computer
is bumped, the drive heads "may" contact the disks, causing physical damage
to the disk and resultant loss of data, and again, head damage.

10-12 years ago the hard drives did not automatically park the heads. There
were utilities available that, when used, made certain that the read/write
heads were in a safe position after shutdown.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard Urban said:
Just turning off the computer via the power switch can set you up for hard
drive damage - under the right circumstances, as a customer of mine has
proven over the years. He insists on keeping his towers under his desk where
he keeps on kicking it with his size thirteen's.

When you turn off a computer the accepted way, the hard drive will park the
read/write heads in a safe position in the park zone. There is no
information there to be damaged if the computer sustains a severe bump. The
heads themselves may still be damaged though.

If you just "turn off" the computer, using the power switch, the read/write
heads are likely to be in a position where data is stored. If the computer
is bumped, the drive heads "may" contact the disks, causing physical damage
to the disk and resultant loss of data, and again, head damage.

10-12 years ago the hard drives did not automatically park the heads. There
were utilities available that, when used, made certain that the read/write
heads were in a safe position after shutdown.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Click to expand...

good advice. PC shutdown sequence is there for a reason.
 
Well my frined,

I have experienced really great losses.. My hard disk went out and I lost
all data, In addition RAM might freak out too.. Not sure about the
processor...

Regards
Ahmad
Microsoft Student Partner - India
 
What is the worst thing that could possibly happen to my laptop (a sony vaio)
if it is repeatedly turned off straight from the power button every time
rather than going to start, shut down, etc.? Like if it just switched off
straight away at the power button without coming out of windows?
Click to expand...

Check out all the options in Power Management. There is one that allows you
to configure the behavior of the power button. "Pressing Power..." performs
and then a list of options. The list include "shutdown." Using this option,
the system will perform an orderly shutdown and no need to worry about "bad
things" happening.

There is also "hibernate" in that list. Useful for portables however you
must remember to start normally and shutdown normally before changing
hardware configuration. Docking/undocking might be problematic on your
model if you do it often and are using this setting. Check with
manufacturer if it is "safe" for your system or not.
 
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