What Happens if You Don’t Shut Down Your Computer Properly?

Sometimes we casually decide to shut down the computer by pressing the power button for few seconds or by pulling the plug. Whereas sometimes computer freezes and when there is no response, we have no choice but to shut down the system forcibly. But, have you ever wondered about what force shut down does to your machine? There must be some reason why the companies offer the shutdown option and not advice to unplug the system abruptly.

When you shut down a PC, the following things happen:

• A user check takes place: When other users are logged in to the computer (using another account on the same PC), you’re alerted. Do you really want to shut down? Those users may be running programs or have unsaved documents. Clicking No cancels the operation, which is the proper thing to do.
• Programs close: Windows shuts down any programs or processes that you’ve begun or that “belong” to you. It sifts through that list and sends every program the shutdown signal. If a program contains unsaved data, you’re prompted to save the data to continue. (Or you can click the Cancel button, which stops the entire shutdown operation.) When a program cannot be stopped, you’re prompted to end it.
• Users are logged out: After programs (and processes) belonging to you, the human, are stopped, Windows logs you out, ending your Windows session.
• Windows is halted: After you’re gone, Windows begins shutting down bits and pieces of itself. These programs, services, and processes are all ended, and Windows ensures that they end properly and have no social issues or gripes.
• The shutdown signal is sent: When Windows is done with itself, it sends a signal to the computer’s power management hardware to turn off the power. If that feature isn’t present, a message appears on the screen, something like it is now safe to turn off this computer and get back to real life.

The effects of improper PC shut down can be:

• Files may be written incompletely: When you abruptly turn off the system, the files that the system has been writing may be incomplete resulting in loss of data.
• Data corruption: All those unsaved data and programs can lead to data corruption.
• Forced shut down during updates can cause damage to the system.

The modern Windows systems use New Technology File System (NTFS), which has better performance and improved data structures. It has a feature called journaling, which keeps the log of changes in data to reduce the risk of corruption or data loss. But, this doesn’t ensure that you will not face data corruption if you do not shut down your PC correctly.

Shutting down PC forcibly can result in severe data loss and corruption which can make you reinstall the operating system again. So, it is better to turn off the system as per the standard procedure even if it takes some time.

Last updated: August 18, 2018