force shut down

when i force shut down my computer... is it possible that i damage my computer? i'm most worried about the harddrive, as i heard that power failure could result in head crash..

i don't know about notebook harddrive... especially the hitachi drive that came with my MBP (i usually use seagate). but in some modern hard drive, i heard they use some kind of head unload technology, that automatically retract the head in case of power failure, with power or not. do the 2.5" notebook hitachi drive on the macbook pro has this?

is there any other kind of damage that may result from force shut down?

 

Yes, always park the hard drive before turning it off.
I've heard that the newer drives have springs or capacitors to do it automatically but I'm not sure. The old drives I have taken apart don't. That included one as recent as a 60GB 2.5" Hitachi so I would not be surprised if newer ones don't have it either.

 

hey, i found this interesting article about the ramp load/unload technology.
go here: www.hgst.com/portal/site...6eac4f0a0/#5K250

and select: Ramp Load/Unload Technology

go to the page 4 of the article.

"In the event of power loss to the drive, Hitachi GST invented a fault-tolerant retract system to move the heads to the park position by
extracting energy generated from the spinning disks through a high-efficiency retract circuit. This circuit directs the current from the
spindle motor back-EMF to the actuator assembly, enabling the sliders to move off the disk area to the ramp in a controlled fashion
during an unexpected power down situation. In February, 2000, Hitachi GST was awarded the patent to this invention (US 6,025,968),
which is used in all Hitachi GST drives and any hard drive incorporating load/unload technology."

i wonder how reliable this technology is...