Quick Question about HDDs

[slipd]

Hello,

I've heard that it's bad for your hard drive if you turn off your computer suddenly (ie holding down the power button).  Is that true?  If so, why?

Thanks in advance.

[Salmon Trout]

The reason why you are not supposed to shut down a computer with the power button is that doing this can prevent the operating system (and/or any running programs) from closing files that may be open, or can interrupt the writing of files. These things can corrupt the file system.

[Allan]

Bottom line, if you do a hard shutdown you should follow it up by running chkdsk /r to fix any file anomalies that may have occurred.

[Salmon Trout]

...you are not supposed to shut down a computer with the power button...

Even worse would be to just pull the plug out of the wall socket... Sudden power outages while the computer is running are well known causes of FS corruption and worse.