Glossary Entry: Hard Shutdown

Quick Definition

Also known as a hard reboot, this is when you shut down a computer by holding the power button until the system dies. As a general rule, you really shouldn't do this. It can damage your hardware and corrupt your file system.

Unfortunately, this is sometimes needed to jolt a system out of an unresponsive state.

By contrast, normal shutdowns, such as those cause by using the "shutdown" option in a menu, are known as soft shutdowns, and are the way you're supposed to shutdown your system.


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