What Happens If You Just Switch Off The Mac?

[Wackintosh]

Hello everyone,

I've got an iMac plugged into my UPS. My question is will there be any ill effects, i I just switch off the UPS without going through the proper shutdown procedure?

Thanks

- Mark

 

[Batt]

Shouldn't be a problem.

 

[JNB]

Unix is fairly bulletproof, I've inadvertently yanked mains from HP industrial servers on more than a couple occasions, they come right back up with no ill effect.

That being said, is is decidedly NOT recommended. Here's a good reason why: if the system is in the midst of a hard drive read/write operation, you could stand a chance of saying bye-bye to that drive in fractions of a second. Also, if the power cut is not clean (a slow fade of voltage/current over a couple seconds), that is Not A Good Thing for much of the IC's and other componentry.

 

[iToaster]

Just make sure you aren't doing anything with it at the time, you run the risk of data corruption. It doesn't take too long to shut down anyway, it's only a maximum of 10 seconds on my machines. Also, you could put it to sleep so the RAM is copied onto the hard drive and it will resume from that.

 

[Eric Lewis]

it you shut off your mac..it turns off?

 

[Hawkeye411]

Messes up the file system I believe.

 

[marbles]

Hello everyone,

I've got an iMac plugged into my UPS. My question is will there be any ill effects, i I just switch off the UPS without going through the proper shutdown procedure?

Thanks
Steve

I mean why would you want to ?? just set it to sleep via power button and there you go press power button and it'll go to sleep

what a bizzare question

 

[Roquefort]

The filesystem is designed to survive a crash without losing your data, but you should not stake your life (well, your data) on that. You should avoid routinely cutting off power without a proper shutdown. If it crashes now and then, you'll probably be fine, but why increase your risk to save those few seconds it takes to shut down?

 

[carfac]

I once forced a power off because my iMac was unresponsive. It was a coouplke days after Leopard came out. Somehow that wiped out something on the HD in the OS, and I had to restore from Time Machine- the first that the rep I talked to had ever done.

While it was fun figuring out how to work Time Machine... it was also scarey and time consuming. I do NOT think it is worth the risk. I won't do it on my Macs or my PC's unless all other options are exhausted. Modern OS's have files to close out and such- you may get lucky... once... twice.... three times. But there will be a time you wipe out something, and it will probably be something important.

So, it takes, what, 10 seconds to power down. Is your life so busy you can't take that time? Is getting that time back worth possibly loosing whatever project you are working on?

Take the ten seconds and do it right.