Is hard resetting harmful for your PC?

Question

Hi,

Just a quick question, does hard resetting your computer (holding the power button until it shuts off) harmful to the PC. I have to do it a few times whenever my PC freezes and I have no other choice but to hard reset. If it is harmful, is there any way I can restart my PC safely, instead of hard resetting?

Thank you

Answer 1

You're going to get conflicting information here, so you will need to do some research on your own and come to your own conclusion.  The short story is that in computers that have the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface(ACPI), which would include your Window 7 PC, using the power switch is not very likely to have any ill effect.  Such was not the case in earlier PCs and Windows versions, especially pre-XP DOS-based versions.   There are two reasons that there is a pause before shutdown when you press the power switch.  One is to prevent inadvertently shutting down the PC by hitting the switch accidentally, and the other is to allow Windows to suspend read/write operations prior to shutdown.  

I would follow ThrashZone's advice and solve the problem of Windows not shutting down normally, then you won't have to worry about it at all.

Answer 2

Note that there is no OFF button on a Windows computer.  You already know that I suspect.

There is no "Off button" and there's no "On" button.  There is a power switch.

Answer 3

Note that there is no OFF button on a Windows computer.  You already know that I suspect.

When Windows shuts down, it does a lot of things, and if you start up Task Manager and go to the processes tab, you will see there is a lot going on all the time.  When you shut down by removing power (using the ON button), you stop all those processes in the middle of what ever they were doing, you take a chance.  If any one of them happens to be in the middle of writing a new record to the disk, that disk sector will likely be corrupted.  If that happens to be a Windows program, Windows may not be able to execute on reboot.  Consequently, Windows is corrupted.  Note that this could happen to one or more of your applications as well.

Windows7 is actually quite good at detecting damage to itself and repairing itself, so most of the time, it will recover from this damage all by itself. You can see this by the fact that it may announce an improper shut down and take a while longer to boot.

Note that sometimes, a bit of patience may demonstrate that you have not really lost control, but your computer is very busy.

In most cases when a computer seems to be stuck, you can still start Task manager by either Ctrl+Alt+Del or by right clicking on the task bar.   If you can, select the errant task in the Applications tab and choose End task.  This is a much better alternative than removing power.

Answer 4

Well they are designed to use it

What causes the use might be more damaging though

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135