Can shutting down a computer unproperly harm your computer?

Answer 1

Improper shut down of a computer can cause serious damage to the operating system and to data files. During a proper shut down, the computer goes through a series of tasks in a specific order. When the operating system and other programs are shut down improperly the computer may malfunction when turned back on because files may have become corrupt.

Answer 2

Advantages to shutting them down:

# It saves a lot of energy. The average computer and monitor use about the same amount of energy as a 250 watt light bulb. # Shutting down a computer occasionally gives the operating system a chance to re-write the registry and make other adjustments to allow for program changes such as updates, uninstallations, reinstallations, etc. This is less an issue with Unix-based operating systems, but can still be of help from time to time. As an aside: you should always re-boot before defragging, which you do every month at least, don't you?

Disavantages: Minor.

The reader heads on older drives used to rest on the disc when it was shut down. The theory -- never proven -- was that wear and tear on the heads and drive surface during spin-up and spin-down shortened the life of the drive. Newer drives are designed to keep the head completely away from the surface during operation, and drive damage is no longer a problem, if it ever was.

Generally speaking, the energy saved by shutting down will far offset any expenses or other problems likely to be associated with the practice. That said, there's little to be gained by shutting down if you're only going to be away from the machine for a short time. In such event, standby mode or hibernation is quicker to use when you return.

Answer 3

In some situations, yes. Most forms of damage from improper shutdown occur to the hard drive. If you shut down while data is being written to the drive, for instance, file system corruption can occur, resulting in data loss and/or the need to reinstall the operating system. Older hard drives can also be subjected to physical damage by the head dropping down onto the platters once they stop spinning, though this is not a concern with most drives newer than 1995.

Answer 4

There can be many effects but most the time it effects system files to check for errors try this many others out there aswell