Gaming can you break your computer by doing....

Rydian

Resident Furvert™
Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
27,880
Trophies
0
Age
36
Location
Cave Entrance, Watching Cyan Write Letters
Website
rydian.net
XP
9,111
Country
United States
psychic stalker said:
Most operating systems cache write data. That is, they store pending writes to disk in memory and flush it to disk in batches. This improves read performance in certain cases. And, in certain cases, write cache will sometimes remain for long periods of time without being flushed.

The consequence of that is threefold:
  • When power is cut during a write cache flush, not all of the data is written. Files will remain incomplete, data will be missing, and filesystem metadata will be corrupt or incomplete. This is why filesystem journaling was introduced. Recovery requires a careful analysis of the hard drive to locate and correct corrupted and missing data. This nearly always results in lost files.
  • When power is cut before a cache flush, all of that data is simply lost. Files will not be created, they will remain incomplete, and the filesystem will likely be inconsistent. This results in loss of "unsaved" data.
  • If power is lost during any kind of read or write operation on a hard drive, there is a small likelihood that there will be physical damage to the hard drive, which, in certain cases, will result in not only loss of data but unrecoverable damage to the physical drive. Hard drive manufacturers work very hard to make sure that doesn't happen, but the risk is still there.
There are other problems, such as inconsistent hardware state (such as a BIOS flash gone wrong) and thermal shock (such as a hot capacitor suddenly getting very cold) that can result in dead hardware.

So, yeah, unplug it all you want if you don't mind losing data or breaking your computer.
 

Crass

Rock me Dr. Zaius
Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
Messages
1,013
Trophies
1
Location
Oregon
Website
www.ds-scene.net
XP
723
Country
United States
Unplugging it or any abrupt power outage in general should not physical damage the hardware. However it could be potential bad if your hard drive is writing a file to disc. Ever notice how when you save a game on a console, it says dont unplug or power off the system? Well if you do it will more than likely corrupt that save file right? So if theres anything going on in the background, windows updates or whatnot, it could potentially damage or corrupt those files. Generally its bad practice, and pretty fucking retarded. If your PC has become unresponsive, just hold the power button down for 5+ seconds.
 

myuusmeow

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2007
Messages
1,646
Trophies
0
Website
google.com
XP
327
Country
United States
800px-Hard_disk_head_crash.jpg


If that happens... make his parents pay. This means less chance of them coming back to your house, which means less chance of him pulling the plug, win win.
 

_Chaz_

GBAtemp's Official Mook™
Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
5,698
Trophies
0
XP
764
Country
United States
myuusmeow said:
800px-Hard_disk_head_crash.jpg


If that happens... make his parents pay. This means less chance of them coming back to your house, which means less chance of him pulling the plug, win win.
Dear god, that actually made me cringe.
 

elimist

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
282
Trophies
0
XP
34
Country
United States
_Chaz_ said:
myuusmeow said:
800px-Hard_disk_head_crash.jpg

If that happens... make his parents pay. This means less chance of them coming back to your house, which means less chance of him pulling the plug, win win.
Dear god, that actually made me cringe.
frown.gif


This probably will not happen because you cut the power though because hdds have a spring that pulls the head back and parks it.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    AncientBoi @ AncientBoi: :rofl2: +1