shut down procedures

[gramirez2004]

Why is it so important to shut down the computer through the shut down command. I know about the damage that can happen when the computer loses power when the operating system is writing to the hard drive. But does the hard drive itself have a "shutting down" procedure apart from the operating system preparing to shut itself down? And if so what is it?

 

[gramirez2004]

Also do other pieces of hardware have shutting down procedures like the graphics cards or the CPU?

 

[edfair]

Bringing up a computer with more than a minimal operating system forces a swquence of steps opening hardware and software processes. They are usually intended to be closed down in an inverse order to properly terminate the services. Shutting down in other than orderly fashion may leave service flags in such a state that the system recognizes an error on the next boot and forces a cleaning cycle to get everything in order. As complicated as things are now, leaving flags in an indeterminate state can lead to wierd things happening.
Higher end computers with caching hard drive controllers store data in memory that must be flushed or written before power is dropped to get the data onto the drive. Print jobs in process need to be finished. Serial channels need to be closed to keep garbage off the lines.
Graphic chips and CPUs will quit working without corrupting anything on the chips themselves. And hard drives will quit working without damaging anything with the exception of the cache problem from the controller and the on drive cache.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.