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!
