What Happens to Harddisk on Reset

[maximus]

Hai friends
i want to know what happens when we press the reset button,is there any problem for our hardware such as hard disk or we just have to suffer the unsaved dataloss.please explain it in detail as i am confused about several myths about it.waiting for ur response thanx in advance

[Vishal Gupta]

It should 100 % create problems coz when we press RESET button, the system is immediately restarted and it can cause damage to ur HDD! It can create BAD Sectors also...

[Mateusz Matusiak]

Well, as far I know. Powering down and restarting your pc also damages your HDD. As it is the best for the HDD to work without any powering down all the time - lets say 3 year non-stop , then starting it twice a day (assuming that you use your pc 2 time per day).

[chesss]

I doubt if there is any damage to harddisk on reset. I simple reason being that I have been resetting my harddisk for 4 years now.
Though I can't be sure.. would like to know myself. Once some 'computer expert' once told me not to format my computer too much to prevent harddisk crashes

[kalpik]

The Head of the harddisk floats on a cussion of air. When u shutdown your pc, the normal way, the head is taken to a special location and then the air supply is stopped. But when u reset the pc, the haed drops on the disk platter. This may damage the platter. Oh and yes, performing a FULL format does reduce the hard disk's life..

[maximus]

Originally Posted by kalpik

the head is taken to a special location and then the air supply is stopped. But when u reset the pc, the haed drops on the disk platter

Does Hard disk have an air suppling device to keep the head floating??
i heard so many abt head drops on platter,but my doubt is if it has to drop on platter on reseting.the head must have to drop somewhere on normal stopping since head is always above the platters.does this affect the head?

[gary4gar]

Originally Posted by kalpik

Oh and yes, performing a FULL format does reduce the hard disk's life..

does formatting through right clicking on any drive in my computer cuase any harm??

[vinayasurya]

When a harddisk is switched off its head goes to headparking zone in the harddrive. So no harm is done to harddrive physically. You may suffer data loss transfered at the time. It is same as switching off by shutdown button in windows. Windows saves contents to harddisk and prevents data loss.

[janitha]

When shut down normally, the head goes to the landing/parking zone. But when reset, it does not and may touch and scratch the platter and cause bad sectors or other problems. So reset only as a last resort.

For more detailed info go to the following site.

http://www.storagereview.com/guide20...ctParking.html

[maximus]

thanx janitha
u cleared my doubt.
from that article i understand that new technology hard drives have auto parking facility which can park the head to landing zone even if we power off and there is another great technology developed by IBM called load/unload ramp which is now used in hitachi hard drives (see) ,i dont know if there is any another hard drives support it,if so post it.so i think new era has come where the reset doesnt affect the harddisk.

correct me if i was mistaken and if there is any other problem we havent seen, please post it..

[kalpik]

Originally Posted by gary4gar

does formatting through right clicking on any drive in my computer cuase any harm??

Yup.. But its not a problem if u select quick format.

[maximus]

I have done formating (both quick as well as normal)by right clicking on the drive ... no problem so far

[gary4gar]

Originally Posted by maximus

I have done formating (both quick as well as normal)by right clicking on the drive ... no problem so far

how many times????(30 char limit sucks !)

[casanova]

yup, i havent faced any problems even though I have repartitioned my hard disk many times, quick/full format many times.
So no probs been faced yet.

[kalpik]

Im not saying that a full format will damage your disk.. It just reduces life. Ok, ill explain why. When u do a quick format, only the metadata is erased. Metadata is kinda like the table of contents of the hard disk. So when u erase the metadata, the whole data of the harddisk is lost. Note that metadata constitutes only a *very small* portion of the hard disk. Whereas, when u do a full format, it erases the whole hard disk, each and every track and sector. So quick format=less read/write and full format=WAY more read/write..

Hope this explains..!

[maximus]

i am just saying that formating via right clicking and using administrative tools are the same.i didnt meant formating is ok for HDD.

Originally Posted by kalpik

Whereas, when u do a full format, it erases the whole hard disk, each and every track and sector. So quick format=less read/write and full format=WAY more read/write..

but i have a doubt how can formatting cause bad sector on hard disk since it is only read and write the entire disk and while reading/writing, head is in a air cushion
please discuss about the problems on restart on new generation drive which has load/unload ramp if any

[kalpik]

Bad sectors are not always due to scratch on platter. They can occur when the sector looses its magnetism too..

[vinayasurya]

One question to janitha. How the hardware knows you shutdown using windows shutdown button? I think the head will go parking zone even if u reset.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by vinayasurya

One question to janitha. How the hardware knows you shutdown using windows shutdown button? I think the head will go parking zone even if u reset.

When you reset, it is instantaneous restarting without the drive spinning down and the head going to rest in the landing/parking zone.

[chesss]

Whereas, when u do a full format, it erases the whole hard disk, each and every track and sector. So quick format=less read/write and full format=WAY more read/write..

you can hardly say this reduces life of the hard-disk, thats like saying benchmarking would reduce life of a harddisk.

btw great info on resetting guys, thanks. Going a little offtopic, what happens to ram when the reset button is pressed. And how are things different in pressing reset and just killing power( poweroff button) ?